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KETT OR PETTIGR 




NORTH CAROLINA AT GETTYSBURG. 



A HISTORICAL MONOOFLA^H 



BY 



C AFT. W. R. BOND, 

SOMETIME OFFICER BRIGADE STAFF ARMY NORTHERN VIRGINIA. 



"Tell the truth and the world will come to see it at 
last." — Emerson. 



THIRD EDITION 



Single copy 
Five copies 



$ .35 
1.25 



W. L. L. HALL, Publisher, 

Scotland Neck, N. C. 
1901. 






t> 7? /J 



9 j 






T HE LlgSAHV OF 

CONGRESS. 
Out Copv RtCEivE* 

AUG. 19 1901 

C»»V*ieHT ENTRY 

0d/: 3, '#&* 

CLAStCt_XXe. No 



COPY A. 



XXe. No. 



■ 



' 



DEDICATION. 



To the memory of the brave men of Hill's 
Corps, who were killed while fighting under the 
orders of General Longstreet, on the afternoon of 
July 3rd. 1863; whose fame has been clouded by 
the persistent misrepresentations of certain of 
their comrades, this "little book" is affectionate- 
ly dedicated. W. R. B. 

Scotland Neck, Halifax Co., JST. C, 
October, 1888. 






Copyrighted 1888, 

BY 

W. W. HALL. 



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... .>■ v- - .-■-is-.^-A 



SCOTLAND >'ECK. N. Ci 

THE COMMONWEALTH I'RINT. 

lOOl. 






PREFACE. 



The first edition of this pamphlet appeared a short time 
before the publication of the Official Records relating to 
Gettysburg. Consequently many things of importance 
to the subject treated were unknown to the writer. Such 
facts as he possessed of his own knowledge or could 
gather from his comrades and other sources, together 
with a lot of statistics secured from the War Department, 
were published, and with gratifying results. Very many 
of the statements then made and which were not open to 
successful contradiction were so much at variance with 
the general belief that the brochure attracted wide atten- 
tion, especially among old soldiers. From Tacoma. on 
the Pacific slope, and Augusta, Me. ; from Chicago and 
New Orleans, came assurances of interest and appre- 
ciation. In fact there are very few States from 
which there have not come expressions either of surprise 
that the slander should ever have originated or of sympa- 
thy with the effort to right a great wrong. 

That the two thousand copies formerly issued should 
have been disposed of two years ago and that there is still 
a demand for the pamphlet, is deemed sufficient reason 
for this edition. And the recent publication in New York 
of a history repeating the old falsehoods emphasizes the 
need of keeping the facts before the public. 

It would be a matter of regret should any statement in 
these pages wound the sensibilities of any personal friends 
of the author, still in such an event he would be measura- 
bly consoled by the reflection that here as in most mat- 
ters it is best to "hew to the line and let the chips fall as 
they may." 

Scotland Neck, N. C, April, 1900. 



General James Johnston Pettigrew. 



"There lived a knight, when knighthood was in flow'r, 
Who charm'd alike the tilt-yard and the bovver." 

Johnston Pettigrew was born upon his father's es- 
tate, Bonarva, Lake Scuppernong, Tyrrell county, North 
Carolina, on July 4th, 1828, and died near Bunker's Hill, 
Virginia, July 17th, 1863, having been wounded three 
days before in a skirmish at Falling Waters. He gradu- 
ated with the first distinction at the University of North 
Carolina in 1847. A few months after graduation, at 
the request of Commodore Maury, principal of the Naval 
Observatory at Washington, he accepted a professorship 
in that institution. Having remained there about eight 
months he resigned and went to Charleston, South Caro- 
lina, and became a student of law in the office of his dis- 
tinguished relative, Hon. Jas. L. Pettigru, obtaining a 
license in 1849. In 1850 he went to Europe to study the 
civil law in the German Universities. In 1852 he became 
Secretary of Legation to the United States Minister at the 
Court of Madrid. Having remained in Madrid only a few 
months he returned to Charleston and entered upon the 
practice of law with Mr. Pettigru. In December, 1856, 
and December, 1857, he was chosen a member of the Leg- 
islature from the city of Charleston. He rose to great 
distinction in that body by his speech on the organization 
of the Supreme Court, and his report against the re-open- 
ing of the African Slave Trade. Again in 1859 he went to 
Europe with the intention of taking part in the war then 
in progress between Sardinia and Austria. His applica- 
tion to Count Cavour for a position in the Sardinian Army, 
under Gen'l Marmora, was favorably received. His rank 
would have been at least that of Colonel; but in conse- 



General James Johnston Pettigrew. 5 

quence of the results of the battle of Solferino, which 
took place just before his arrival in Sardinia, the war was 
closed and he was thereby prevented from experiencing 
active military service and learning its lessons. In 1859 
he became Colonel of a rifle regiment that was formed 
and that acted a conspicuous part around Charleston in 
the winter of 1860-61. With his regiment he took posses- 
sion of Castle Pinkney, and was afterwards transferred 
to Morris Island, where he erected formidable batteries. 
In the spring of 1861, his regiment growing impatient 
because it could not just then be incorporated in the Con- 
federate Army, disbanded. Col. Pettigrew then joined 
Hampton's Legion as a private and went with that body 
to Virginia, where active service was to be met with. A 
few days afterwards, without any solicitation on his part, 
he was elected Colonel of the Twenty-Second North Caro- 
lina Troops. While at Evansport he was offered promo- 
tion, but declined it upon the ground that it would sepa- 
rate him from his regiment. Late in the spring of 1862 
an arrangement was made by which his regiment was 
embraced in the brigade. He then accepted the commis- 
sion. He and his brigade were with General Johnston at 
Yorktown and in the retreat up the peninsula. He was 
with his brigade in the sanguinary battle of Seven Pines 
(Fair Oaks), where he was severely wounded and left in- 
sensible upon the field and captured. He was in prison 
only about two months, and on being exchanged he re- 
turned to find that in his absence his beloved brigade had 
been given to General Pender. A new brigade was then 
made up for him. How well this body was disciplined 
and of what material it was made this monograph has 
attempted to show. In the autumn of 1862 he was order- 
ed with his brigade to Eastern North Carolina where he 
was engaged in several affairs which though brilliant 
have been overshadowed by the greater battles of the war. 
In May, 1863, his brigade was again ordered to Virginia, 
and ever after formed a part of the Army of Northern 



6 General James Johnston Pettigrew. 

Virginia. While commanding Heth's division in Long- 
street's Assault, though his horse had been killed, and he 
had receivad a painful wound— a grapeshot shattering his 
left hand — he was within a few feet of his own brigade 
when the final repulse came. On his regaining our lines 
his remark to General Lee that he was responsible for his 
brigade but not for the division, shows that he was satis- 
fled with the conduct of a part but not with that of all 
the troops under his command. 

As to one of the two brigades that gave way before the 
rest of the line he labored under a very great misappre- 
hension. He did not know then and the reading world 
has been slow to realize since how very great had been its 
loss before retreating. As to the fact that in proportion to 
the number carried into the assault its loss had been more 
than twice as great as that of any of Pickett's brigades 
there is not the slightest doubt. The highest praise and 
not censure should be its reward. 

At Falling Waters, on the 14th, he had just been placed 
in -command of the rear guard when a skirmish occurred 
in which he was mortally wounded. He died on the 17th 
and his remains were taken to his old home, Bonarva, 
and there he lies buried near the beautiful lake, whose 
sandy shores his youthful feet were wont to tread. May 
he rest in peace! 



Pickett or Pettigrew? 



The battle of Gettysburg — a three days' tight in which 
there were six or more separate and distinct engagements 
— bears the same relation to the Civil War that Saratoga, 
followed by Burgoyne's surrender, does to the Revolution, 
and the Moscow campaign to the Wars of Napoleon. In 
each case the current of events was reversed and ever 
after moved, slowly it may be, in an opposite direction. 
As the years roll by this battle rightly becomes more and 
more the battle of the great war. But it is hard to under- 
stand why the last of a series of repulses should now 
almost everywhere bear the same relation to the battle as 
a whole that the battle itself does to all others. 

The loss inflicted upon the enemy and that suffered by 
us was much greater both on the first and second day. 
If it is supposed to mark the "turning of the tide" this is 
a mistake, for the highest point was reached and the ebb 
began on the afternoon of the second day. In fact this 
affair differed from all others in one respect only, and 
that was the long continued and deafening cannonade 
which preceded it — "Sound and fury signifying nothing. ' ' 
History reports that at the battle of Valmy the Duke of 
Brunswick's Army, demoralized b} r the roar of the French 
guns, fled from the field. We had no Valmy in our war. 

A grand old soldier in his report of a certain battle 
speaks of the ineffective long range fire of one of our bat- 
talions of artillery as the "most melancholy farce of the 
war." It is needless to say that the incident referred to 
by General H. antedates July, 1863. 

This last futile assault is ordinarily spoken of as "Pick- 
ett's charge." It would appear, if General Longstreet did 
not wish to own it, the name of the General next in rank 



8 Pickett or Pettigrew? 

or date of commission should have been used to designate 
it. The comparative unimportance of this ill-advised at- 
tack can be readily shown by a supposition, which possi- 
bly came near being a verity. Suppose General Meade 
had re-opened the battle on the morning of the 4th — does 
anyone doubt he would have been beaten, and badly 
beaten? And had he been beaten, the assault of the after- 
noon before would have been forgotten, or remembered 
only as Mechanicsville, Malvern Hill, Bristow Station 
and a dozen other fields where human lives were reckless- 
ly squandered, are remembered. However, it is generally 
considered the big thing of a big battle, and as such it has 
not only had its place in books treating of the war, but 
has been more written about in newspapers and maga- 
zines than any event in American history. Some of these 
accounts, bordering on the hysterical, are simply silly. 
Some are false in statement. Some are false in inference. 
All in some respects are untrue. 

Three divisions containing nine brigades and number- 
ing about nine thousand and seven hundred officers and 
men, were selected for the assaulting column. The field 
over which they were ordered to march slowly and de- 
liberately was about one thousand yards wide and was 
swept by the fire of one hundred cannon and twenty 
thousand muskets. The smoke from the preceding can- 
nonade which rested upon the field was their only cover. 
In view of the fact that when the order to go forward was 
given Cemetery Ridge was not defended by Indians or 
Mexicans, but by an army, which for the greater part, 
was composed of native Americans, an army, which if it 
had never done so before, had shown in the first and sec- 
ond days' battles not only that it could fight, but could fight 
desperately. In view of this fact, whether the order to 
go forward was a wise thing or frightful blunder I do not 
propose to discuss. The purpose of this paper will be to 
compare and contrast the courage, endurance and soldier- 
ly qualities of the different brigades engaged in this as- 



Pickett or Pettigrew? 9 

sault, dwelling especially upon the conduct of the troops 
commanded respectively by Generals Pickett and Petti- 
grew. 

If certain leading facts are repeated at the risk of mo- 
notony, it will be for the purpose of impressing them upon 
the memories of youthful readers of history. As a sam- 
ple, but rather an extreme one, of the thousand and one 
foolish things which have been written of this affair I 
will state that a magazine for children, "St. Nicholas," I 
think it was, some time ago contained a description of 
this assault in which a comparison was drawn between 
the troops engaged, and language something like the fol- 
lowing was used: "Those on the left faltered and fled. 
The right behaved gloriously. Each body acted accord- 
ing to its nature, for they were made of different stuff. 
The one of common earth, the other of finest clay. Pet- 
tigrew's men were North Carolinians, Pickett's were 
superb Virginians." To those people who do not know 
how the trash which passes for Southern history was man- 
ufactured, the motives which actuated the writers, and 
how greedily at first everything written by them about 
the war was read, it is not so astonishing that a libel 
containing so much ignorance, narrowness and prejudice 
as the above should have been printed in a respectable 
publication, as the fact that even to this day, when offi- 
cial records and other data are so accessible, there are 
thousands of otherwise well-informed people all over the 
land who believe the slander to be either entirely or in 
part true. And it looks almost like a hopeless task to at- 
tempt to combat an error which has lived so long and 
flourished so extensively. But some one has said, "Truth 
is a Krupp gun, before which Falsehood's armor, however 
thick, cannot stand. One shot may accomplish nothing, 
or two, or three, but keep firing it will be pierced at last, 
and its builders and defenders will be covered with con- 
fusion." This little essay shall be my one shot, and may 
Justice defend the right. 



10 Pickett ok Pettigrew? 

In the great war the soldiers from New York and North 
Carolina filled more graves than those from any of the 
other States. In the one case fourteen and in the other 
thirty-six per cent, of them died in supporting a cause 
which each side believed to be just. 

Virginia, North Carolina and Georgia each had about 
the same number of infantry at Gettysburg, in all twenty- 
four brigades of the thirty-seven present. Now, this bat- 
tle is not generally considered a North Carolina fight as 
is Chancellorsville, but even here the soldiers of the old 
North State met with a loss fifty per cent, greater in 
killed and wounded than did those from any other State, 
and leaving out Georgians and Alabamians greater than 
did those from any two States. Though the military pop- 
ulation of North Carolina was exceeded by that of Vir- 
ginia and Tennessee, she had during the war more men 
killed upon the battle field than both of them together. 
This is a matter of record. It may be that she was a lit- 
tle deliberate in making up her mind to go to war, but 
when once she went in she went.in to stay. At the close of 
the terrible struggle in which so much of her best blood 
had been shed her soldiers surrendered at Appomattox 
and Greensboro, taken together, more muskets than did 
those from any other State in the Confederacy. Why 
troops with this record should not now stand as high every- 
where as they did years ago in Lee's and Johnston's 
armies may appear a problem hard to solve, but its solu- 
tion is the simplest thing in the world, and I will present- 
ly give it. 

The crack brigades of General Lee's army were noted 
for their close fighting. When they entered a battle they 
went in to kill, and they knew that many of the enemy 
could not be killed at long range This style of fighting 
was dangerous, and of course the necessary consequences 
in the shape of a casualty list, large either in numbers 
or percentage, followed. Then there were some troops 
in the army who would on all occasions blaze away and 



Pickett or Pettigrew? 11 

waste ammunition, satisfied if only they were making a 
noise. Had they belonged to the army of that Mexican 
general who styled himself the "Napoleon of the West," 
they would not have been selected for his "Old Guard," 
but yet, without exception, they stood high in the estima- 
tion of the Richmond people, much higher indeed than 
very many of the best troops in our army. 

As said above, Longstreet's assault is almost invariably 
spoken and written of as "Pickett's charge." This name 
and all the name implies, is what I shall protest against 
in this article. At the battle of Thermopylae three hun- 
dred Spartans and seven hundred Thespians sacrificed 
their lives for the good of Greece. Every one has praised 
Leonidas and his Spartans. How many have ever so 
much as heard of the equally brave Thespians? I do not 
know of a case other than this of the Thespians, where a 
gallant body of soldiers has been treated so cruelly by 
history, as the division which fought the first day under 
Heth and the third under Pettigrew. 

In this division there were five regiments from North 
Carolina, and the loss they met with in killed and wound- 
ed during the two days they fought was not almost but 
entirely unprecedented, and so little was their morale im- 
paired by this trying ordeal that when their wing of the 
army re-crossed the river they were among the troops 
selected for the post of honor — the rear guard. 

Yet slanders oft repeated, born sometimes of ignorance, 
sometimes of malice, have, caused most readers of history 
to consider them and their division as little better than 
cowards, and it was only with the intention of saying a 
good word in their behalf that this paper was first writ- 
ten. Later it was borne in upon the writer that the in- 
jury done these superb soldiers has affected to some ex- 
tent the reputation of every officer and man from North 
Carolina. 

Carolinians living in other States realize this fact much 
more thoroughly than those at home. The truth is, this 



12 Pickett or Pettigrew? 

combat on the afternoon of July 3rd, 1863, is fast becom- 
ing, if it has not already become, the event of the civil 
war, the representative battle, the touch-stone by which 
the character and value of the troops from the different 
States will always be tested. Therefore it were well that 
about an event so important the truth and all the truth 
be known. Turn on the light. North Carolinians, Missis- 
sippians, and Tennesseeans, have no cause to fear it, how- 
ever brilliant its beams or penetrating its rays. 

As the battle of Gettysburg was the most sanguinary of 
the war, as it is considered "the turning of the tide," so 
the final charge made, preceded, and attended, as it was by 
peculiarly dramatic circumstances, has furnished a sub- 
ject for more speeches, historical essays, paintings and 
poems than any event which ever occurred in America. 
Painters and poets, whose subjects are historical, of course 
look to history for their authority. If history is false, 
faleshood will become intrenched in. poetry and art. 

The world at large gets its ideas of the late war from 
Northern sources. Northern historians, when the subject 
is peculiarly Southern, from such histories as Pollard's 
and Cook's, and these merely reflected the opinions of the' 
Richmond newspapers. These newspapers in turn got 
their supposed facts from their army correspondents, and 
they were very careful to have only such correspondents 
as would write what their patrons cared most to read. 

During the late war, Richmond, judged by its newspa- 
pers, was the most provincial town in the world. Though 
the capital city of a gallant young nation, and though the 
troops from every State thereof were shedding their blood 
in her defence, she was wonderfully narrow and selfish . 
While the citizens of Virginia were filling nearly one-half 
of the positions of honor and trust, civil and military, 
Richmond thought that all should be thus filled. With 
rare exceptions, no soldier, no sailor, no jurist, no states- 
man, who did not hail from their State was ever admired 
or spoken well of. No army but General Lee's and no 



Pickett or Pettigrew? 13 

troops in that army other than Virginians, unless they 
happened to be few in numbers, as was the case of the 
Louisianians and Texans, were ever praised. A skirmish 
in which a Virginian regiment or brigade was engaged 
was magnified into a fight, an action in which a few were 
killed was a severe battle, and if by chance they were 
called upon to bleed freely, then, according to the Rich- 
mond papers, troops from some other State were to blame 
for it, and no such appalling slaughter had ever been 
witnessed in the world's history. 

Indiscriminate praise had a very demoralizing effect 
upon many of their troops. They were soon taught that 
they could save their skins and make a reputation, too, 
by being always provided with an able corps of corres- 
pondents. If they behaved well it was all right; if they 
did not it .was equally all right, for their short-comings 
could be put upon other troops. The favoritism displayed 
by several superior officers in General Lee's army was 
unbounded, and the wonder is that this army should have 
continued to the end in so high a state of efficiency. But 
then as the slaps and bangs of a harsh step-mother may 
have a less injurious effect upon the characters of some 
children than the excessive indulgence of a silly parent, so 
the morale of those troops, who were naturally steady 
and true, was less impaired by their being always pushed 
to the front when danger threatened, than if they had 
always been sheltered or held in reserve. 

Naturally the world turned to the Richmond newspa- 
pers for Southern history, and with what results I will 
give an illustration: All war histories teach that in 
Longstreet's assault on the third day his right division 
(Pickett's) displayed more gallantry and shed more blood, 
in proportion to numbers engaged, than any other troops 
on any occasion ever had. Now, if gallantry can be 
measured by the number or percentage of deaths and 
wounds, and by the fortitude with which casualties are 
borne, then there were several commands engaged in this 



14 Pickett or Pettigrew? 

assault which displayed more gallantry than any brigade 
in General Longstreet's pet division. Who is there who 
knows anything of this battle to whom the name of Vir- 
ginia is not familiar ? 

To how many does the name of Gettysburg suggest the 
names of Tennessee, Mississippi or North Carolina ? And 
yet the Tennessee brigade suffered severely; but the cour- 
age of its survivors was unimpaired. There were three 
Mississippi regiments in Davis' brigade, which between 
them had one hundred and forty-one men killed on the 
field. Pickett's dead numbered not quite fifteen to the 
regiment. The five North Carolina regiments of Petti- 
grew's division bore with fortitude a loss of two hundred 
and twenty-nine killed. 

Pickett's fifteen Virginia regiments were fearfully de- 
moralized by a loss of two hundred and twenty-four kill- 
ed. A T irginia and North Carolina had each about the 
same number of infantry in this battle. The former had 
three hundred and seventy-five killed, the latter six hun- 
dred and ninety-six. 

When in ante-bellum days, Governor Holden, the then 
leader of the Democratic cohorts in North Carolina, was 
the editor of the "Raleigh Standard," he boasted that he 
could kill and make alive. The Richmond editors during 
the war combining local and intellectual advantages 
without boasting did the same. They had the same power 
over reputations that the Almighty has over physical mat 
ter. This fact General Longstreet soon learned, and the les- 
son once learned he made the most of it. He would praise 
their pet troops and they would praise him, and between 
them everything was lovely. He was an able soldier, "an 
able writer, but an ungenerous." Troops from another 
corps who might be temporarily assigned to him were in- 
variably either ignored or slandered. 

The Gascons have long been noted in history for their 
peculiarity in uniting great boastfulness with great cour- 
age. It is possible that some of General Longstreet's an- 



Pickett or Pettigrew? 15 

cestors may have come from Southern France. His gas- 
conade, as shown of late by his writings, is truly aston- 
ishing, but his courage during the war was equally re- 
markable. Whether his Virginia division excelled in the 
latter of these characteristics as much as it has for thirty- 
seven years in the former, I will leave the readers of this 
monograph to decide. 

If to every description of a battle a list of casualties 
were added not only would many commands both in the 
Army of Northern Virginia and in the Army of the Poto- 
mac, which have all along been practically ignored, come 
well to the front; but those who for years have been reap- 
ing the glory that others sowed might have the suspicion 
that perhaps after all they were rather poor creatures. 
Our old soldier friend, Colonel John Smith, of Jamestown, 
Va. ,- to an admiring crowd tells this story: "He carried 
into action five hundred men, he charged a battery, great 
lanes were swept through his regiment by grape and can- 
ister, whole companies were swept away, but his men 
close up and charge on, the carnage is appalling, but it 
does not appall, the guns are captured, but only he and 
ten men are left to hold them. His regiment has been 
destroyed, wiped out, annihilated," and this will go for 
history. But should Truth in the form of a list of casual- 
ties appear it would be seen that Colonel Smith's com- 
mand had fifteen killed and sixty wounded. That is three 
in the hundred killed and twelve in the hundred wound- 
ed. Some gallantry has been displayed, some blood has 
been shed, but neither the one nor the other was at all 
phenomenal. "There were brave men before Agamem- 
non." 

Was it arrogance or was it ignorance which always 
caused Pickett's men to speak of the troops which march- 
ed on their left as their supports? It is true that an order 
was issued and it was so published to them that they 
would be supported by a part of Hill's corps, and these 
troops were at first formed in their rear. It is equally 



16 Pickett or Pettigrew? 

true that before the command to move forward was given 
this order was countermanded and these troops were re- 
moved and placed on their left. As these movements 
were seen of all men this order could not have been the 
origin of the belief that Pettigrew had to support them. 
Was it arrogance and self-conceit? It looks like it: 
that their division stood to Lee's army in the same rela- 
tion that the sun does to the solar system. But then these 
people, if not blessed with some other qualities, had 
brains enough to know that our army could fight and 
conquer, too, without their assistance. They did com- 
paratively little fighting at Second Manassas and Sharps- 
burg, had only two men killed at Fredericksburg, did 
not fire a shot at Chancellorsville, for they were miles 
away, and it is no exaggeration to say that they did not 
kill twenty of the enemy at Gettysburg. 

The front line of troops, the line which does the fight- 
ing was always known as "the line." The line which 
marched in rear to give moral support and practical as- 
sistance if necessary, was in every other known body of 
troops called the supporting line or simply "supports." 
Pickett's division had Kemper's on the right, Garnett's 
on the left, with Armistead's marching in the rear of 
Garnett's. Pettigrew's formed one line with Lane's and 
Scales' brigades of Pender's division, under Trimble, 
marching in the rear as supports. How many support- 
ing lines did Pickett's people want ? The Federals are 
said occasionally to have used three. Even one with us 
was the exception. Ordinarily one brigade of each divis- 
ion was held in reserve, while the others were righting, 
in order to repair any possible disaster. 

To show how a falsehood can be fortified by Art, I will 
state that I visited the Centennial Exposition at Phila- 
delphia and there saw a very large and really fine paint- 
ing representing some desperate fighting at the so-called 
"Bloody Angle." Clubbing with muskets, jabbing with 
bayonets and firing of cannon at short range, was the 



Pickett or Pettigrew:^ 17 

order of the day. Of course I knew that the subject of the 
painting was founded upon a myth; but had always been 
under the impression that while many of Pickett's and a 
few of Pettigrew's men were extracting the extremeties 
of certain under-garments to be used as white flags, a 
part of them were keeping up a scattering fire. While 
before the painting a gentleman standing near me ex- 
claimed: "Tut! I'll agree to eat all the Yankees Pickett 
killed." Entering into conversation with him I learned 
that he had been at Gettysburg, had fought in Gordon's 
Georgia brigade, and that he did not have a very exalted 
opinion of Pickett's men. As our Georgian friend was 
neither remarkably large nor hungry-looking, several 
persons hearing his remark stared at him. That he did 
exaggerate to some extent is possible, for I have since 
heard that among the dead men in blue near where Ar- 
mistead fell there were six who had actually been killed 
by musket balls. 

Colonel Fox, of Albany, N. Y., has published a work 
entitled, "Regimental Losses." In it is seen a list of the 
twenty-seven Confederate regiments which had most men 
killed and wounded at Gettysburg. Readers of the his- 
tories of Pollard and Cooke will be rather surprised to 
find only two Virginia regiments on this list. Those who 
are familiar with battle-field reports will not be surprised 
to see that thirteen of these regiments were from North 
Carolina and four from Mississippi. Three of the last 
named and five of the North Carolina regiments met with 
their loss under Pettigrew. 

Pettigrew's own brigade had in killed and wounded elev- 
en hundred and five, which is an average to the regiment of 
two hundred and seventy-six. There was not a Confeder- 
ate regiment at either First or Second Manassas which 
equalled this average, and no Virginia regiment ever did. 

This brigade on the first day met those of Biddle and 
Meredith, which were considered the flower of their 
corps, and many old soldiers say that this corps — the 



18 Pickett or Pettigrew? 

First — did the fiercest fighting on that day of which they 
ever had any experience, and the official records sustain 
them in this belief. Biddle's brigade was composed of 
one New York and three Pennsylvania regiments. Mere- 
dith's, known as the "Iron" brigade, was formed of five 
regiments from the West. (By the way, the commander 
of this body, General Solomon Meredith, was a native of 
North Carolina, as was also General John Gibbon, the 
famous division commander in the Second corps, and 
North Carolina luck followed them, as they were both 
severely wounded in this battle.) Pettigrew's brigade, 
with a little assistance from that of Brockenbrough, af- 
ter meeting these troops forced them to give ground and 
continued for several hours to slowly drive them 'till their 
ammunition became nearly exhausted. When this oc- 
curred the Federals had reached a ridge from behind 
which they could be supplied with the necessary ammu- 
nition. But not so with Heth's troops. The field was so 
open, the contending lines so close together, and as every 
house and barn in the vicinity was filled with sharp- 
shooters, they could not be supplied and were in conse- 
quence relieved by two of Pender's brigades. In the 
meantime the enemy was re-enforced by a fresh brigade 
of infantry and several wonderfully efficient batteries of 
artillery, and so when the brigades of the "Light Divis- 
ion" made their advance they suffered very severely be- 
fore their opponents could be driven from the field. 
Meredith's brigade this day had 886 killed and wounded 
and 266 missing; Biddle's, 642 killed and wounded and 255 
missing. The loss in Brockenbrough's Virginia was 148. 
For the whole battle, as said before, Pettigrew's killed 
and wounded amounted to 1,105; probably two-thirds of 
this loss occurred on this day. 

These facts and figures are matters of record, and yet 
with these records accessible to all men, Swinton, a 
Northern historian, in the brilliant description he gives 
of the assault on the third day says that "Heth's divis- 



Pickett or Pettigrew? 19 

ion, commanded by Pettigrew, were all raw troops, who 
were only induced to make the charge by being told that 
they had militia to right and that when the fire was 
opened upon them they raised the shout, 'The Army of 
the Potomac! The Army of the Potomac!' broke and 
fled.*' As after the battle the Virginia division had the 
guarding of several thousand Federal prisoners captured 
by Carolinians and Georgians, they are probably re- 
sponsible for this statement. 

But to return to the fight of the first day. The Honor- 
able Joseph Davis, then a Captain in the Forty-Seventh, 
late Supreme Court Judge of North Carolina, speaking of 
this day's battle says: "The advantage was all on the 
Confederate side, and I aver that this was greatly, if not 
chiefly, due to Pettigrew's brigade and its brave com- 
mander. The bearing of that knightly soldier and ele- 
gant scholar as he galloped along the lines in the hottest 
of the fight, cheering on his men cannot be effaced from 
my memory.'' 

Captain Young, of Charleston, South Carolina, a staff 
officer of this division, says: "No troops could have 
fought better than did Pettigrew's brigade on this day, 
and I will testify on the experience of many hard fought 
battles, that I never saw any fight so well." Davis' brig- 
ade consisted of the Fifty-Fith North Carolina, the Sec- 
ond, Eleventh and Forty-Second Mississippi. The Elev- 
enth was on detached service that day. The three which 
fought also faced splendid troops. Here, too, was a square 
stand-up fight in the open. During the battle these three 
had. besides the usual proportion of wounded, one hun- 
dred and forty-eight killed. Only two dead men were 
lacking to these three regiments to make their loss equal 
to that of ten regiments of Pickett's "magnificent Vir- 
ginians."' 

Cutler's brigade, composed of one Pennsylvania and 
four New York regiments, was opposed to that of Davis, 
and its loss this day was 602 killed and wounded and 363 



20 Pickett or Pettigrew? 

missing, and many of the missing were subsequently 
found to have been killed or severely wounded. With 
varying success these two brigades fought all the morn- 
ing. The Federals finally gave way; but three of their 
regiments, after retreating for some distance, took up a 
new line. Two of them left the field and went to town. 
As the day was hot and the fire hotter, it is said they vis- 
ited Gettysburg to get a little ice water. However that 
may be they soon returned and fought well 'till their 
whole line gave way. 

The ground on which these troops fought lay north of 
the railroad cut and was several hundred yards from 
where Pettigrew's brigade was engaged with Meredith's 
and Biddle's. As Rodes' division began to appear upon 
the field Davis' brigade was removed to the south side of 
the cut and placed in front of Stone's Pennsylvania brig- 
ade (which, having just arrived, had filled the interval 
between Cutler and Meredith) but did no more fighting 
that day. After securing ammunition it followed the 
front line to the town. Had the interval between Dan- 
iel's, of Rodes', and Scales', of Pender's division been filled 
by Thomas', which was held in reserve, neither of these 
Carolina brigades would have suffered so severely. The 
Second and Forty-Second Mississippi and Fifty-Fifth 
North Carolina, of Davis', for the battle had 695 killed 
and wounded, and about two-thirds of this occurred in 
this first day's fight. 

To illustrate the individual gallantry of these troops I 
will relate an adventure which came under my observa- 
tion. It must be borne in mind that this brigade had 
been doing fierce and bloody fighting, and at this time 
not only its numerical loss but its percentage of killed 
and wounded was greater than that which Pickett's 
troops had to submit to two days later, and that it was 
then waiting to be relieved. Early in the afternoon of 
this day my division (Rodes') arrived upon the field by 
the Carlisle road and at once went into action. My brig- 



Pickett or Pettigrew? 21 

ade (Daniel's) was on the right, and after doing some 
sharp fighting we came in sight of Heth's line, which was 
lying at right angles to ours as we approached. The di- 
rection of our right regiments had to be changed in order 
that we might move in front of their left brigade, which 
was Davis'. The Federal line, or lines, for my impression 
is there were two or more of them, were also lying in the 
open field, the interval between the opposing lines being 
about three hundred yards. Half way between these 
lines was another, which ran by a house. This line was 
made of dead and wounded Federals, who lay ,; as thick 
as autumnal leaves which strew the brooks in Vallom- 
brosa." It was about here that the incident occurred. A 
Pennsylvania regiment of Stone's brigade had their two 
flags — state and national — with their guard a short dis- 
tance in front of them. One of these colors Sergeant 
Frank Price, of the Forty-Second Mississippi, and half a 
dozen of his comrades determined to capture. Moving on 
hands and knees 'till they had nearly reached the desired 
object, they suddenly rose, charged and overcame the 
guard, captured the flag and were rapidly making off with 
it, when its owners fired upon them. All were struck down 
but the Sergeant, and as he was making for the house 
above referred to a young staff officer of my command, 
having carried some message to Heth's people, was re- 
turning by a short cut between the lines, and seeing a 
man with a strange flag, without noticing his uniform he 
thought he, too, would get a little glory along with some 
bunting. Dismounting among the dead and wounded he 
picked up and fired several muskets at Price; but was for- 
tunate enough to miss him. Sergeant Price survived the 
war. His home was in Carrollton, Mississippi. Recently 
the information came from one of his sons, a name-sake 
of the writer, that his gallant father was no more; he had 
crossed the river and was resting under the shade of the 
trees. The parents of Mr. Price were natives of the old 
North State. Does any one who has made a study of 



22 Pickett or Pettigrew? 

Pickett's "magnificent division,"' suppose that even on 
the morning of the 5th, when only eight hundred of the 
nearly or quite six thousand who had engaged in battle 
reported for duty, sad and depressed as they were, it could 
have furnished heroes like Price and his companions 
for such an undertaking, as in spite of friends and foes 
was successfully accomplished? General Davis says that 
every field officer in his brigade was either killed or 
wounded. Major John Jones was the onlj- one left in the 
North Carolina brigade, and he was killed in the next 
spring's campaign. 

The following extract is taken from a description of the 
assault by Colonel Taylor, of General Lee's staff: "It is 
needless to say a word here of the heroic conduct of Pick- 
et's division, that charge has already passed into history 
as 'one of" the world's great deeds of arms.' While doubt- 
less many brave men of other commands reached the crest 
of the heights, this was the only organized body which 
entered the works of the enemy." Pickett's left and Pet- 
tigrew's and Trimble's right entered the works. Men 
from six brigades were there. Which command had most 
representatives there is a disputed point. As to the su- 
perior organization of Pickett's men what did that amount 
to? In the nature of things not a brigade on the field was 
in a condition to repel the feeblest counter attack. 

Just before the final rush two bodies of Federals moved 
out on the field and opened fire, the one upon our right 
the other upon the left. The loss inflicted upon our peo- 
ple by these Vermonters and New Yorkers was very 
great, and not being able to defend themselves, there was 
on the part of the survivors a natural crowding to the 
centre. The commander of a Federal brigade in his re- 
port says: "Twenty battle flags were captured in a space 
of one hundred yards square." This means that crowded 
within a space extending only one hundred yards there 
were the fragments of more than twenty regiments. But 
Colonel Taylor says that Pickett's division "was the only 
organized body which entered the enemy's works." 



Pickett or Pettigrew? 23 

The late General Trimble said: 'Tt will be easily un- 
derstood that as Pickett's line was overlapped by the 
Federal lines on his right, and Pettigrew's and Trimble's 
front by the Federal lines on their left, each of these com- 
mands had a distinct and separate discharge of artillery 
and musketry to encounter, the one as incessant as the 
other, although Pickett's men felt its intensity sooner than 
the others, and were the first to be crushed under a fire 
before which no troops could live; while Pettigrew and 
Trimble suffered as much or more before the close because 
longer under fire, in consequence of marching farther." 
And again: "Both Northern and Southern descriptions 
of the battle of Gettysburg, in ihe third day's contest, 
have without perhaps a single exception, down to the 
present time, given not only most conspicuous prominence 
to General Pickett's division, but generally by the lan- 
guage used have created the impression among those not 
personally acquainted with the events of the day that 
Pickett's men did all the hard fighting, suffered the most 
severely and failed in their charge, because not duly and 
vigorously supported by the troops on their right and left. 
It might with as much truth be said that Pettigrew and 
Trimble failed in their charge, because unsupported by 
Pickett, who had been driven back in the crisis of their 
charge and was no aid to them." 

Some time ago General Fitz Lee wrote a life of his uncle, 
General Robert E. Lee, and in a notice of this book the 
courteous and able editor of a leading Richmond newspa- 
per gives a fine description of the part borne by Pickett's 
division in Longstreet's assault on the third day, but has 
little or nothing to say about the other troops engaged; 
whereupon a citizen of this State (North Carolina) wrote 
and wished to know if there were any North Carolinians 
upon the field when Pickett's men so greatly distinguish- 
ed themselves. In answer the editor admits that he had 
forgotten all about the other troops engaged, and says: 
"We frankly confess that our mind has been from the 



24 Pickett or Pettigrew? 

war until now so fully possessed of the idea that the glory 
of the charge belonged exclusively to Pickett's division 
that we overlooked entirely the just measure of credit 
that General Fitz Lee has awarded other commands." 
Whereupon a correspondent of his paper, curiously 
enough, is in high spirits over this answer, and referring 
to it says: "It is especially strong in what it omits to 
say. The picture of the charge, as given by Swinton, as 
seen from the other side, would have come in perfectly; 
but it would have wounded our North Carolina friends 
and was wisely left out." 

Now, as to the impertinence of this correspondent who 
refers to what Swinton said, there is a temptation to say 
something a little bitter, but as the writer has made it a 
rule to preserve a judicial tone as far as possible, and in 
presenting facts to let them speak for themselves, he re- 
frains from gratifying a very natural inclination. Prob- 
ably with no thought of malice Swinton, in making a 
rhetorical flourish, sacrificed truth for the sake of a strik- 
ing antithesis. This of course he knew. Equally of 
course this is what the correspondent did not know. No 
one ever accused John Swinton of being a fool. 

A distinguished writer in a recent discussion of this as- 
sault says: "History is going forever to ask General 
Longstreet why he did not obey General Lee's orders and 
have Hood's and McLaw's divisions at Pickett's back to 
make good the work his heroic men had done." Not 
so. History is not going to ask childish questions. 

A Virginian writer in closing his description of this as- 
sault has recently said: "Now, this remark must occur 
to every one in this connection. Pickett's break through 
the enemy's line, led by Armistead, was the notable and 
prodigious thing about the whole battle of Gettysburg." 
If so, why so ? 

The commanders of Wrighfs Georgia and Wilcox's 
Alabama brigades report that when fighting on Long- 
street's left on the afternoon of the second day, they car- 



Pickett or Pettigrew? 25 

ried the crest of Cemetery Ridge and captured twenty- 
eight cannon. The truth of this report is confirmed by 
General Doubleday, who says: "Wright attained the 
crest and Wilcox was almost in line with him. Wilcox 
claims to have captured twenty guns and Wright eight." 

In another place he says, in speaking of a certain officer: 
"Oh his return late in the day he saw Sickles' whole line 
driven in and found Wright's rebel brigade established on 
the crest barring his way back." He also says: "On 
this occasion Wright did what Lee failed to accomplish 
the next day at such a heavy expense of life, for he pierced 
our centre and held it for a short time, and had the move- 
ment been properly supported and energetically followed 
up, it might have been fatal to our army and would most 
certainly have resulted in a disastrous retreat." 

Late in the same afternoon over on our left in John- 
son's assault upon Gulp's Hill, Steuart's brigade carried 
the position in their front and held it all night. Also late 
the same afternoon two of Early's brigades, Hoke's North 
Carolina and Hays' Louisiana, carried East Cemetery 
Heights, took many prisoners and sent them to the rear, 
several colors, and captured or silenced 20 guns (spiking 
some of them before they fell back). And a part of them 
maintained their position for over an hour, some of them 
having advanced as far as the Baltimore Pike. It is an 
undoubted fact that even after their brigades had fallen 
back parts of the Ninth Louisiana and Sixth North Caro- 
lina, under Major Tate, held their position at the wall on 
the side of the hill (repelling several attacks) for an hour, 
thus holding open the gate to Cemetery Heights, and it 
does seem that under cover of night this gate might have 
been used and the Ridge occupied by a strong force of our 
troops with slight loss. 

Returning to the afternoon of the third day the fact is 
that the men who were in front of the narrow space 
abandoned by the enemy, and some who were on their 
right and left, in a disorganized mass of about one thous- 



26 Pickett or Pettigrew? 

and, crowded into this space for safety. (Less than fifty 
followed Armistead to the abandoned gun.) When, after 
about ten minutes, they were attacked they either surren- 
dered or fled. No one knows what State had most repre- 
sentatives in this "crowd" as the Federal Colonel Hall 
calls them, but the man who wrote that they did "'the 
notable and prodigious thing about the whole battle of 
Gettysburg" thinks he knows. All soldiers now know, 
and many knew then, that in sending 9,000 or 10,000 men 
to attack the army of the Potomac, concentrated and 
strongly fortified, there was no reasonable hope of success. 

The thing of most interest to readers of history is the 
question to which of the troops engaged on that ill-starred 
field is to be awarded the palm for heroic endurance and 
courageous endeavor. To know the percentage of killed 
and wounded of the different troops engaged in this as- 
sault, is to know which are entitled to most honor. Some 
of the troops in Pettigrew's division met with a loss of 
over 60 per cent. The percentage for Pickett's division 
was not quite 28. The Eleventh Mississippi, as said else 
where, was the only regiment in Pettigrew's or Trimble's 
divisions, which entered the assault fresh. Most of the 
other troops of these commands had been badly cut up in 
the first day's battle, and the exact number they carried 
into the assault is not known, but entering fresh the num- 
ber taken in by the Eleventh is known, and the number 
it lost in killed and wounded is reported by Dr. Guild. 
Consequently there cannot be the slightest doubt that its 
percentage of loss for the assault was at least 60. It is 
fair to presume that the percentage in the other regiments 
of its brigade was equally great. It is also fair to pre- 
sume that the brigade immediately on its right, which 
went somewhat farther and stayed somewhat longer under 
the same terrific fire, lost as heavily. 

If the charge of the Light Brigade at Balaklava in 
which it lost 35 per cent, has rendered it famous, why 
should not the charge of Davis' brigade in which it lost 



Pickett or Pettigrew? 27 

60 per cent, render it equally famous ? And if the blun- 
dering stupidity of the order to charge has excited our 
sympathy in behalf of the British cavalry, is there not 
enough of that element in the order to the infantry brig- 
ade to satisfy the most exacting ? And if Davis' brigade 
deserves fame why do not all the brigades — with one ex- 
ception — of Pettigrew and Trimble also deserve it ? 

Colonel W. E. Potter, of the Twelfth New Jersey, 
Smyth's brigade. Hays' division, in an address delivered 
several years ago, after speaking in very complimentary 
terms of the conduct of the North Carolina and Mississippi 
brigades of Pettigrew's division, says: "Again a larger 
'number of the enemy was killed and wounded in front of 
Smyth than in front of Webb. Of this, besides the gen- 
eral recollection of all of us who were then present, I have 
special evidence. I rode over the field covered by the Are 
of these two brigades on the morning of Sunday, July 
5th, in company with Lieutenant-Colonel Chas. H. Mor- 
gan, the chief of staff of General Hancock, and Captain 
Hazard. As we were passing the front of Smyth's brig- 
ade. Colonel Morgan said to Hazard: 'They may talk as 
they please about the hard fighting in front of Gibbon, 
but there are more dead men here than anywhere in our 
front.' To this conclusion Hazard assented." 

After the frightful ordeal they had been through it is 
not to the dsscredit of any of the troops engaged to say 
that when they reached the breastworks, or their vicini- 
ty, there was no fight left in them, for there is a limit to 
human endurance. This limit had been reached, and this 
is shown by the fact that there was not an organization 
upon the field which, when an attack was made on its 
flank, made the slightest attempt to change front to meet 
it, but either surrendered or fled. This being the case the 
only thing of interest is to decide which brigades received 
the most punishment before this limit was reached. 

During the recent discussion in the Richmond newspa- 
pers as to whether any of the North Carolina troops 



28 Pickett or Pettigrew? 

reached a point at or near the enemy's works, the most 
prominent writer on the negative side of the question 
gives extracts from the reports of certain participants 
in the charge to corroborate his opinion, and by a singu- 
lar oversight gives one from the report of Major John 
Jones,. then commanding Pettigrew's own brigade, who 
says: ''The brigade dashed on, and many had reach- 
ed the wall when we received a deadly volley from the 
left.*' To have reached the stone wall on the left of the 
salient, they must necessarily have advanced considera- 
bly farther than any troops on the field. And yet the 
above writer in the face of Major Jones' testimony 
thinks that neither his nor any North Carolina troops 
were there. But then he quotes from the Federal Colonel 
Hall, "who," he says, "gives a list of the flags captured 
by his command when the charge was made." Amongst 
them he mentions that of the Twenty-Second North Caro- 
lina, and says: "If this Can be accepted as true it of 
course ends all controversy." Colonel Hall reports that 
at the close of the assault his brigade captured the flags 
of the Fourteenth, Eighteenth, Nineteenth and Fifty- 
Seventh Virginia, and that of the Twenty-Second North 
Carolina. Webb reports that his command captured six 
flags, but does not name the regiments to which they be- 
longed. Heath captured those of the First, Seventh and 
Twenty-Eighth Virginia. Carroll's brigade those of the 
Thirty-Fourth North Carolina and Thirty-Eighth Virginia. 
Smyth's brigade those of First and Fourteenth Tennessee, 
Sixteenth and Fifty-Second North Carolina and five oth- 
ers, the names not given, and Sherrill's brigade captured 
three, the names not given. Thus we have the names of 
eight Virginia, four North Carolina and two Tennessee 
and fourteen reported captured, names not given. In all 
twenty-eight, which accounts for Pickett's fifteen, Scales' 
five, Pettigrew's own three and Archer's four. One of 
Pettigrew's and one of Archer's having been carried back, 
some of the other troops must have lost one. If official 



Pickett or Pettigrew? 29 

reports which say that the flags of the First and Four- 
teenth Tennessee, and of the Sixteenth, Twenty-Second, 
Thirty-Fourth and Fifty-Second North Carolina were cap- 
tured, cannot be accepted as true and thus "end all con- 
troversy," perhaps a re-statement of the fact that twenty- 
eight colors were taken at the close of the assault may do 
so, for as said above the Virginia division had only fif- 
teen flags. 

To show the disproportion that existed at the close of 
the fight between the numbers of men and flags, one 
officer reports that his regiment charged upon the retreat- 
ing rebels and captured five regimental battle-flags and 
over forty prisoners, and a brigade commander speaking 
of the ground at and in front of the abandoned works, 
says: "Twenty battle-flags were captured in a space of 
one hundred yards square." s 

There is one fact that should be remembered in connec- 
tion with this assault, namely: That of all breastworks 
a stone wall inspires most confidence and its defenders 
will generally fire deliberately and accurately and cling 
to it tenaciously. 

The stone wall ran from the left and in front of Lane's, 
Davis' and Pettigrew's North Carolina brigades and end- 
ed where the right of the last named rested at the close of 
the assault. At this point works made of rails covered 
with earth began and ran straight to the front for some 
distance and then made a sharp turn to the left in the 
direction of Round Top, continuing in nearly a straight 
line beyond Pickett's right. It was a short distance to 
the right of the outer corner of these works ^5^l£xe~-~~ - 
Webb's men gave way. 

Several years ago there was published in the Philadel- 
phia Times, an article by Colonel W. W. Wood, of Ar- 
mistead's brigade, giving his recollections of this affair. 
As the writer had very naively made several confessions, 
which I had never seen made by any other of Pickett's 
men, and had evidently intended to speak truthfully, I 



30 Pickett or Pettigrew? 

put the paper aside for future reference. I shall now 
make several selections from it and endeavor to criticise 
them fairly. Our artillery crowned the ridge, and be- 
hind it sheltered by the hills lay our infantry. "The or- 
der to go forward was obeyed with alacrity and cheerful- 
ness, for we believed that the battle was practically over 
and that we had nothing to do but to march unopposed to 
Cemetery Heights and occupy them." Yes, we can read- 
ily believe that they supposed they could safely gather to 
themselves the glory earned by others. "While making 
the ascent it was seen that the supports to our right and 
left flanks were not coming forward as we had been told 
they would. Mounted officers were seen dashing frantic- 
ally up and down their lines, apparently endeavoring to 
get them to move forward, but we could see that they 
would not move. Their failure to support us was dis- 
couraging, but it did not dishearten us. Some of our men 
cursed them for cowards, etc.'" So far no great courage 
had been required. But what troops were they that Pick- 
ett's people were cursing for cowards ? On the right they 
were Perry's Florida and Wilcox's Alabama, under the 
command of the latter General. Their orders were that 
when twenty minutes had elapsed after the line had start- 
ed they were to march straight ahead and repel any body 
of flankers who should attack the right. This order was 
obeyed to the letter. At the appointed time they moved 
forward and kept moving. About where Pickett should 
have been (Pickett's line had previously obliqued to the 
left) not a Confederate was to be seen. They kept on and 
single banded and alone attacked the whole Federal army, 
then exulting in victory. Of course they were repulsed, 
but when they knew they were beaten did they surrender 
that they might be sheltered in Northern prisons from 
Northern bullets ? Not they. They simply fell back and 
made their way, as best they could, to the Confederate 
lines. Is there any significance in the facts that shortly 
efter this battle General Wilcox was promoted and Gen- 



Pickett or Pettigrew? 31 

eral Pickett and his men were sent out of the army ? 
What other troops were they whom these men were curs- 
ing for being cowards l- 1 On the extreme left there was a 
small brigade which, having often fought under Jackson, 
had 6een service enough to know what to expect. On this 
occasion, heeding the dictates of prudence, they may 
have given cause for. profanity; but all others were choice 
troops. There were the survivors of Archer's gallant 
brigade; there were Mississippians, brave and impetuous, 
North Carolinians, always steady, always true. These 
men were cursed as cowards, and by Pickett's Virginians ! 
Achilles cursed by Thersites ! A lion barked at by a cur ! 

Yes, there was one brigade, and only one, in Pettigrew's 
division which failed in the hour of trial. It was from 
their own State, and had once been an efficient body of 
soldiers, and even on this occasion something might be 
said in its defense. But had this not been the case, to the 
men of Armistead's brigade (who were doing the cursing) 
the memory of their own behavior at Sharpsburg and 
Shepherdstown should have had the effect of making them 
more charitable towards the shortcomings of others. 

Let us allow the Colonel to continue: "From the' time 
the charge began up to this moment not a shot had been 
fired at us, nor had we been able to see, because of the 
density of the smoke which hung over the battlefield like 
a pall, that there was an enemy in front of us. The smoke 
now lifted from our front, and there, right before us, 
scarcely two hundred yards away, stood Cemetery Heights 
in awful grandeur. At their base was a double line of 
Federal infantry and several pieces of artillery, posted 
behind stone walls, and to the right and left of them both 
artillery and infantry supports were hurriedly coming up. 
The situation was indeed appalling, though it did not 
seem to appall. The idea of retreat did not seem to occur 
to any one. Having obtained a view of the enemy's posi- 
tion, the men now advanced at the double quick, and for 
the first time since the charge began they gave utterance 



32 Pickett or Pettigrew? 

to the famous Confederate yell." So it seems that all that 
has been spoken and written about their having marched 
one thousand yards under the fire of one hundred cannon 
and twenty thousand muskets, is the veriest bosh and 
nonsense. They marched eight hundred yards as safely 
as if on parade. When the smoke lifted they charged for 
two hundred yards towards the breastworks; the left only 
reached it — the right never did. but lay down in the field 
and there and then fifteen hundred of them "threw down 
their muskets for the war." Colonel Wood continues: 
"The batteries to the right and left of Cemetery Heights 
now began to rain grapeshot and canister upon us, and the 
enemy's infantry at the base of the Heights, poured vol- 
ley after volley into our ranks. The carnage was indeed 
terrible; but still the division, staggering and bleeding, 
pushed on towards the Heights they had been ordered to 
take. Of course such terrible slaughter could not last 
long. The brave little division did not number men 
enough to make material for prolonged slaughter." 

Dress parade heroes having stumbled unawares into 
danger now acting like puling infants. Yes, the carnage 
was for them indeed terrible, and their subsequent be* 
haviour up to their defeat and rout at Five Forks, showed 
that ,they never forgot it. Let us see what was this hor- 
rible carnage. The fifteen regiments, according to Gen- 
eral Longstreet, carried into the charge, of officers and 
men, forty-nine hundred. It is more probable that the 
number was fifty-five hundred. If they had the former 
number their percentage of killed and wounded was near- 
ly twenty-eight; if the latter, not quite twenty-five. On 
the first day Pettigrew's North Carolina brigade lost 
thirty and on the third sixty per cent. The "brave, the 
magnificent," when they had experienced a loss of fifteen 
killed to the regiment, became sick of fighting, as the 
number surrendered shows. One regiment of the "cow- 
ards," the Forty-Second Mississippi, only after it had met 
with a loss of sixty killed and a proportionate number of 



'I 
Pickett or Pettigrew? 33 

wounded, concluded that it was about time to rejoin their 
friends. Another regiment of the "cowards," the Twen- 
ty-Sixth North Carolina, only after it had had more men 
killed and wounded than any one of the two thousand 
seven hundred Federal and Confederate regiments ever 
had in any one battle, came to the same conclusion. The 
five North Carolina regiments of this division had five 
more men killed than Pickett's fifteen. 

To continue: "In a few brief moments more the left of 
Armistead's brigade, led by himself on foot, had passed 
beyond the stone wall, and were among the guns of the 
enemy, posted in rear of it. General Garnet had before 
then been instantly killed, and General Kemper had been 
severely wounded. The survivors of their brigades had 
become amalgamated with Armistead's." How can any 
one see any organization to boast of here? "Our line of 
battle was not parallel to the Heights, and the left of the 
diminished line reached the Heights first. The right of 
the line never reached them. The men of the right, how- 
ever, were near enough to see General Armistead shot 
down near a captured gun as he was waving his sword 
above his head, and they could see men surrendering 
themselves as prisoners. Just then a detachment of Fed- 
eral infantry came out flanking our right and shouted to 
us to surrender. There was nothing else to do, except to 
take the chance, which was an extremely good one, of 
being killed on the retreat back over the hill. But a few, 
myself among the number, rightly concluded that the 
enemy was weary of carnage, determined to run the risk 
of getting back to the Confederate lines. Our retreat was 
made singly, and I at least was not fired upon." If the 
division had equalled Colonel Wood in gallantry, it would 
not have surrendered more sound men than it had lost in 
killed and wounded, as by taking some risk the most of 
those captured might have escaped as he did. The Colonel 
concludes: "When the retreat commenced on the night 
of the 4th of July, the nearly three hundred men who had 



34 Pickett ok Pettigrew? 

been confined in the various brigade guard -houses were 
released from confinement, and they and their guard per- 
mitted to return to duty in the ranks, and many detailed 
men were treated in the same way. On the morning of 
the 5th of July, the report of the division showed not 
quite eleven hundred present. Eleven hundred from for- 
ty-five hundred leaves thirty-four hundred, and that was 
the number of casualties suffered by Pickett's little divis- 
ion at Gettysburg." I have known individuals who took 
pride in poverty and disease. The surrender of soldiers 
in battle was often unavoidable; but I have never known 
a body of troops other than Pickett's, who prided them- 
selves upon that misfortune. General Pemberton or Mar- 
shal Bazaine may have done so. If they did, their coun- 
trymen did not agree with them, and it is well for the 
fame of General Lee and his army that the belief that 
the road to honor lay in that direction was not very prev- 
alent. Pickett's division has been compared to a "lance- 
head of steel,'' which pierced the centre of the Federal 
army. To be in accord with the comparison it was always 
represented as being smaller than it really was. 

Colonel Wood at the conclusion of his article puts its 
strength at 4,500 officers and men, at the beginning at 
4,500 men. This last would agree with General Long- 
street's estimate of 4,900 effectives. Knowing as I do the 
average per brigade of Jackson's Veterans — one-half of 
the army — and that they had been accustomed to fight 
two days for every one day fought by Longstreet's men, 
I think it probable that Pickett's brigades must have aver- 
aged nearly, if not quite, two thousand. 

But I will place the strength of the division at fifty-five 
hundred. I have heard that fifteen hundred were sur- 
rendered. Official records say that thirteen hundred and 
sixty-four were killed and wounded. 

According to Colonel Wood, leaving out the three hun- 
dred guard-house men, eight hundred appeared for duty 
on the morning of the 5th. These three numbers together 



Pickett or Pettigrew:- 35 

make thirty-six hundred and sixty-four, which taken 
from fifty-five hundred leaves eighteen hundred and 
thirty-six, and this was the number of men which the 
"brave little division" had to run away. They ran and 
ran and kept running 'till the high waters in the Potomac 
stopped them. As they ran they shouted "that they were 
all dead men, that Pettigrew had failed to support them, 
and that their 'brave division' had been swept away." 
The outcry they made was soon heard all over Virginia, 
and its echo is still heard in the North. 

After our army had re-crossed the river and had assem- 
bled at Bunker Hill, the report that Pickett's division of 
"dead men" had drawn more rations than any division in 
the army, excited a good deal of good-natured laughter. 
Among the officers of our army, to whom the casualty 
lists were familiar, the question was often discussed why 
it was that some of Pettigrew's brigades, marching over 
the same ground at the same time, should have suffered 
so much more than General Pickett's ? This question was 
never satisfactorily answered 'till after the war. The 
mystery was then explained by the Federal General 
Doubleday, who made the statement that "all the artil- 
lery supporting Webb's brigade (which being on the right 
of Gibbons' division, held the projecting wall) excepting 
one piece, was destroyed, and nearly all of the artillery- 
men either killed or wounded by the cannonade which 
preceded the assault." 

As it was the custom in some commands to report every 
scratch as a wound, and in others to report no man as 
wounded who was fit for dutj T , the most accurate test for 
courage and efficiency is the number killed. In the eight 
brigades and three regiments from Virginia in this battle 
three hundred and seventy-five were killed, and nineteen 
hundred and seventy-one wounded . That is, for every one 
killed five and twenty-five hundredths were reported 
wounded. In the seven brigades and three regiments from 
North Carolina, six hundred and ninety-six were killed and 



36 Pickett or Pettigrew? 

three thousand and fifty-four wounded. That is for every 
man killed only four and forty hundredths appeared on the 
list as wounded. 

If it be a fact that from Gettysburg to the close of the 
war, among the dead upon the various battle-fields com- 
paratively few representatives from the Virginian infant- 
ry were to be found, it is not always necessarily to their 
discredit. For instance, even at Gettysburg two such 
brigades as Mahone's and Smith's had respectively only 
seven and fourteen men killed. It was not for them to 
say whether they were to advance or be held back. Their 
duty was to obey orders. In the same battle two of Rodes' 
North Carolina brigades — Daniel's and Iverson's — had be- 
tween them two hundred and forty-six men buried upon 
the field. Here we see that eight regiments and one bat- 
talion, which formed these two North Carolina commands, 
had twenty-two more men killed than Pickett's fifteen. 
And yet Virginia history does not know that they were 
even present at this battle. 

Now, for a brief recapitulation. The left of Garnett's 
and Armistead's brigades, all of Archer's and Scales' (but 
that all means very few, neither of them at the start be- 
ing larger than a full regiment) a few of the Thirty-Sev- 
enth and the right of Pettigrew's own brigade took pos- 
session of the works, which the enemy had abandoned on 
their approach. Pettigrew's and Trimble's left and Pick- 
ett's right lay out in the field on each flank of the pro- 
jecting work and in front of the receding wall, and from 
forty to fifty yards from it. There they remained for a 
few minutes, 'till a fresh line of the enemy, which had 
been lying beyond the crest of the ridge, approached. 
Then being attacked on both flanks, and knowing how 
disorganized they were, our men made no fight, but either 
retreated or surrendered. Archer's. Scales' and Petti- 
grew's own brigades went as far and stayed as long or 
longer than any of Pickett's. Davis" brigade, while 
charging impetuously ahead of the line was driven back, 



Pickett or Pettigrew: 



37 



when it had reached a point about one hundred yards 
from the enemy. Lane's, the left brigade, remained a 
few moments longer than any of the other troops and re- 
tired in better order. 

Now, it must not be inferred from anything in this pa- 
per that there has been any intention to reflect upon all 
Virginia infantry. Far from it. The three regiments in 
Steuart's mixed brigade and Mahone's brigade were good 
troops. Perhaps there were others equally good. But 
there was one brigade which was their superior, as it was 
the superior of most of the troops in General Lee's army. 
And that was Smith's brigade of Early's division. These 
troops in spite of the Richmond newspapers and the par- 
tiality of certain of their commanders, had no superiors 
in any army. Never unduly elated by prosperity, never 
depressed by adversity, they were even to the last, when 
enthusiasm had entirely fled and hope was almost dead . 
the models of what good soldiers should be. 

"It is not precisely those who know how to kill," say's 

Dragomiroff, "but those who know 
Deaths The Test. u . ,- v n t i 

how to die who are all-powerful on a 

field of battle." 

Regiments that had twenty-nine or more officers and 

men killed on the field in certain battles: 

REGIMENT. 



13 


Ga. 


3 


N.C. 


1 


Texas 


13 


N. C. 


30 


Va. 


48 


N. C. 


27 


i i 


50 


Ga. 


57 


N. C. 


2 


i i 


4 


a 


3 


a 



BRIGADE. 


BATTLE. 


KILLED. 


Lawton. 


Sharpsburg. 


48. 


Ripley. 


tt 


46. 


Wofford. 


a 


45. 


Garland . 


it 


41. 


Walker. 


a 


39. 


a 


ti 


31. 


a 


<< 


31. 


Drayton. 


a 


29. 


Law. 


Fredericksburg, 


32. 


Ramseur. 


Chancellorsville 


47. 


it 


tt 


45. 


Colston. 


a 


38. 



38 



Pickett or Pettigrew? 



REGIMENT. 


BRIGADE. 


BATTLE. 


KILLED. 


7 N. C. 


Lane. 


Chancellorsville 


37. 


1 " 


Colston. 




34. 


37 " 


Lane. 




34. 


23 " 


Iverson. 




32. 


13 " 


Pender. 




31. 


22 " 


i i 




30. 


51 Ga„ 


Semmes. 




30. 


4 " 


Doles. 




29. 


18 N. C. 


Lane. 




30. 


26 " 


Pettigrew. 


Gettysburg. 


86. 


42 Miss. 


Davjs. 




60. 


11 N. C. 


Pettigrew. 




50. 


2 Miss. 


Davis. 




49. 


45 N. a 


Daniel. 




46. 


23 " 


Iverson. 




41. 


17 Miss. 


Barksdale. 




40. 


55 N. C. 


Davis. 




39. 


59 Va. 


Armi stead. 




35. 


52 N. C. 


Pettigrew. 




33. 


11 Miss. 


Davis. 




32. 


11 Ga. 


Anderson. 




32. 


5 N. C. 


Iverson. 




31. 


13 S. C. 


Perrin. 




31. 


13 N. O. 


Scales. 




29. 


2 " Batt. 


Daniel. 




29. 


3 " 


Steuart. 




29. 


20 " 


Iverson. 




29. 



Of course there were exceptions, but the general rule 
was that those troops who suffered the most themselves 
inflicted the greatest loss on the enemy and were conse- 
quently the most efficient. Colonel Fox says: "The his- 
tory of a battle or war should be studied in connection 
with the figures which show the losses. By overlooking 
them an indefinite and often erroneous idea is obtained. 
By overlooking them many historians fail to develop the 
important points of the contest; they use the same rhetor- 



Pickett or Pkttigrew? 39 

ical descriptions for different attacks, whether the pres- 
sure was strong or weak, the loss great or small, the 
fight bloody or harmless."" 

The proportion of wounded to killed was 4.8 to one. 
That is, if 100 are killed 480 will be wounded. When 100 
men are killed there will be among the wounded 64 who 
will die of wounds. While this may not always be the 
case in a single regiment, yet when a number of regi- 
ments are taken together the wonderful law of averages 
makes these proportions rules about which there is no 
varying. 

There is an old saw which says that "it takes a soldier's 
weight in lead and iron to kill him." Most people believe 
that this saying has to be taken with many grains of al- 
lowance, but it was shown during the war to be literally 
true. In the battle of Murfreesboro the weight of the 
20,307 projectiles fired by the Federal artillery was 225,000 
pounds, and that of the something over 2,000,000 musket 
balls exceeded 1*50,000 pounds, and their combined weight 
exceeded that of the 2,319 Confederates who were killed 
or mortally wounded. 

In the Federal armies deaths from wounds amounted to 
110,000 and from disease and all other causes about 250,- 
000, a total of about 360,000. For deaths in the Southern 
armies only an approximation can be arrived at. Proba- 
bly 100,000 died of wounds and as many more of disease, 
a total of about 200,000 which added to the Federal loss, 
makes about 560,000. 

With singular inappropriateness this brigade and sev- 

nr uuj 7-,i.-» j 1 u- eral other Federal organizations 
Webb s Philadelphia , , f J 

r> • j have erected monuments to com- 

A d Oth T memorate their gallantry upon the 

third day's battlefield. It would ap- 
pear that they should have been erected on the spot where 
their gallantry was displayed. It does not require much 
courage to lie behind breastworks and shoot dow*n an en- 
emy in an open field and then to run away, as it and the 



40 Pickett or Pettigrew? 

other troops in its vicinity did, when that enemy contin- 
ued to approach. But while it does not add to their fame, 
it is not to their discredit that they did give way. For 
however much discipline and inherent qualities may ex- 
tend it, there is a limit to human endurance, and they 
had suffered severely, Webb's brigade in three days hav- 
ing lost forty-nine per cent. If there ever have been 
troops serving in a long war who never on any occasion 
gave way till they had lost as heavily, they were the 
superiors of any in Napoleon's or Wellington's armies. 
The loss in the British infantry at Salamanca was only 
twelve per cent. That of the "Light Brigade" at Bala- 
klava was only thirty-seven. That of Pickett's only 
twenty-eight, and they were ruined forever. It is true 
that the North Carolina and Mississippi brigades of Heth's 
division lost in the first day's battle about thirty and on 
the third at least sixty per cent., and this without having 
their morale seriously impaired, but then both of these or- 
ganizations were composed of exceptionally fine troops. 

This division was composed of Archer's brigade, of 

TX , , r , . . . Tennessee and Alabama regiments, Pet- 

Heth's Division. . * . '. . 

tigrews North Carolina, Davis Missis- 
sippi and North Carolina, and Brockenbrough's Virginia 
brigades. Counting from right to left, Archer joining 
Pickett's left, this was the order in which they were 
formed for the third day's assault. Soon after the order 
to advance was given the left brigade gave way. The 
others advanced and did all that flesh and blood could do. 
General Hooker, who has written the Confederate mili- 
tary history for the Mississippi troops, quotes from Dr. 
Ward, a surgeon who witnessed the assault, who says 
that the fire of Cemetery Hill having been concentrated 
upon Heth's division, he saw no reason why North Caro- 
lina, Mississippi, Tennessee and Alabama troops should 
not participate in whatever honors that were won on that 
day; for, says he, all soldiers know that the number killed 
is the one and only test for pluck and endurance. Gen- 



Pickett or Pettigrew? 

eral Hooker then states: "The brigades in the army 
which lost most heavily in killed and wounded at Gettys- 
burg was (1) Pettigrew's North Carolina, (2) Davis' Miss- 
issippi and North Carolina. (3) Daniel's North Carolina 
and (i) Barksdale's Mississippi." These four had an 
average of 837 killed and wounded. Pickett's three brig- 
ades had an average of 455. 

Some have contended that the number of deaths and 

n . wounds is the test for endurance, others 

Percentages. 

that the percentage is the true test, it 

may be that neither the one nor the other alone, but that 
rather both together should be taken into account. The 
same percentage in a large regiment should count for 
more than that in a small one. For while only one Con- 
federate brigade is reported to have reached as high as 63 
per cent., the regiment, the smaller organizations, more 
frequently attained that rate. Thirteen are known and 
several others are supposed to have reached it. And as 
to the company, there was hardly a hard fought battle in 
which at least one did not have nearlj^ every man killed 
or wounded. The writer knows of four in as many North 
Carolina regiments which in one battle were almost de- 
stroyed. In three of these the percentage went from 
eighty-seven to ninety-eight, and the fourth had every 
officer and man struck. Taking Colonel Fox's tables for 
authority, we find that of the thirty-four regiments stand- 
ing highest on the percentage list six were from North 
Carolina, and these six carried into battle two thousand 
nine hundred and nine; only two of the thirty-four were 
from Virginia, and their "present"' was fifty- five for one 
and one hundred and twenty-eight for the other. Tenn- 
essee, leading the list in number, had seven, Georgia and 
Alabama each had six. The two States, whose soldiers 
Virginia historians with a show of generositj 7 were in the 
habit of so frequently complimenting, Texas and Louisi- 
ana, make rather a poor show — the former has only one 
regiment on the list and the other does not appear at all. 



42 Pickett ok Pettigeew? 

The Twenty-Sixth North Carolina had 820 officers and 
men at Gettj^sburg, and their percentage of killed and 
wounded was exceeded by that of only two Confederate 
and three Federal regiments during the whole war, and 
those five were all small, ranging from one hundred and 
sixty-eight to two hundred and sixty-eight. As Senator 
Vance's old regiment unquestionably stands head on the 
numerical list, so should it, in the opinion of the writer, 
stand on that of percentages. As, for reasons not neces- 
sary to mention here, this list relates almost entirely to 
the early battles of the war, it is not as satisfactory as it 
might be. Early in the war, when it was generally be- 
lieved that peace would come before glory enough to go 
round had been obtained, the North Carolina troops were, 
to a certain extent, held back. For this reason, however 
flattering to our State pride Colonel Fox's table is, as it 
stands, it would have been vastly more so had it covered 
the whole war, especially the last year, when the fortunes 
of the Confederacy were held up by the bright bayonets 
of the soldiers from the old North State. "Carolina, Car- 
olina, Heaven's blessings attend her!" 

We see in field returns for February and March, 1865, 

„ . „ ^r,,. that Pickett's division was the largest 

, ,,. ^ ,, m the army, there is nothing remark- 
et Mwe Ovra.' _. . J • » ■ . L1 & 

able about this tact, tor they were not 

engaged in the bloody repulse at Bristoe Station, were not 
present at the Wilderness, were not present at Spottsyl- 
vania, were not with Early in the Valley, and did not 
serve in those horrible trenches at Petersburg. In the 
same report we see that their aggregate, present and ab- 
sent, was 9,487. It may be that since the world was made 
there has been a body of troops with 0,000 names on their 
muster rolls, who, serving in a long and bloody war, in- 
flicted so little loss upon their enemy or suffered so little 
themselves. It may be, but it is not probable. With one 
exception no division surrendered so few men at Appo- 
mattox. Colonel Dodge, of Boston, in his history speaks 



Pickett or Pettigreyt: 

of the commander of this division as "the Ney of Lee's 

army." If satire is intended it is uncalled for as the 

Virginian never inflicted any loss upon the enemy worth 

mentioning; certainly not enough to cause any Yankee 

to owe him a grudge. 

This brigade was composed of the Second, Eleventh and 

r. . . n . j ■ Forty-Second Mississippi and Fifty- 
Davis Brigade. r „.„ / _ T ,_ _. ,. ^ r _ 

s Fifth North Carolina. The two 

first were veteran. They had fought often and always 
well. The Forty-Second Mississippi and Fifty-Fifth 
North Carolina were full regiments, Gettysburg being 
their first battle of importance. The two first named 
served in Law's brigade of Hood's division at Sharps- 
burg (or Antietam) where they greatly distinguished 
themselves, as they had before at First Manassas and 
Gaines' Mill. The Eleventh Mississippi was the only 
fresh regiment outside of Pickett's division that took part 
in the assault of July 3rd. so all of its loss occurred on 
that day, that loss being 202 killed and wounded. The 
number they carried in is variously stated at from 300 to 
350. If the one, the percentage of their loss was sixty- 
seven, if the other fifty-seven. 

This famous division, consisting of two North Carolina, 

D , , ,-,-•• one Georgia and one South Carolina 

Pender s Division. & . 

brigade, was first commanded by Lieu- 

tenant-General A. P. Hill; after his promotion, by Pender, 

who was killed at Gettysburg, and afterwards by Wilcox. 

At this time this division consisted of three North Caro- 

„ , , ._. . . Una, one Georgia and one Alabama brig- 
Kodes Division. , Tj _ ? , , , T . 

ade. It was first commanded by Lieu- 

tenant-General D. H. Hill, who was promoted and trans- 
ferred to the West. Then by Rodes, who was killed at 
Winchester, then by Grimes, who was assassinated just 
after the war. Shortly after Gettysburg, General Lee told 
General Rodes that his division had accomplished more 
in this battle than any other in his army. The record 
this body of troops made in the campaign of 1864 has 



■44 Pickett or Pettigrew? 

never been equalled. It had more men killed and wound-' 

ed than it ever carried into any one action. The records 

show this. 

This division was composed for the most part of Vir- 

, ._„. . . ginians. It had only two North Car- 

iobnson s Division. , . . ,, „. , m , . , 

J ohna regiments, the First and Third. 

During the Mine Run campaign General Ewell and Gen- 
eral Johnson were together when a Federal battery open- 
ed lire upon the division and became very annoying. 
What did these Virginia Generals do about it? "'Only 
this and nothing more.'* The corps commander quietly 
remarked to the division commander: "'Why don't you 
send your North Carolina regiments after that battery 
and bring it in ?" At once these regiments were selected 
from the line, and were forming to make a charge, when 
the battery was withdrawn. 

The seven Confederate regiments which had most men 

„, ^. „. killed in any battle of the war 

What 1 he Troops brom ,, a . ,, ., , 

„.. _._ ' were the Sixth Alabama. 

1 h>2 Different States . ,.„ , m 

_ . , , _, , „, , ninety-one killed; Twentv- 

Considered Blood v Work. „. ■, „ , , ~ ,. . , ' 

Sixth North Carolina, eighty - 

six; First South Carolina Rifles, eighty-one; Fourth North 
Carolina, seventy-seven; Forty-Fourth Georgia, seventy- 
one; Fourteenth Alabama, seventy-one; and Twentieth 
North Carolina, seventy. Pickett's "veterans*' must have 
thought that to have nine or ten men to the regiment 
killed, was an evidence of severe fighting, for the most of 
them think even to this day that to have had nearly fif- 
teen to the regiment killed at Gettysburg was a carnage 
so appalling as to amount to butchery. 

This brigade consisted of the Fifth, Twelfth, Twentieth 
, . , and Twenty-Third North Carolina. 
* It was first commanded by Garland, 

who was killed in the Maryland campaign, then by Iver- 
son, then by Bob Johnston, then by Toon. The Twenti- 
eth was a fine regiment. At a very critical time at 
Gaines' Mill, it captured a battery. It is on Colonel Fox's 



Pickett or Pettiqrew? L5 

list as having had on that occasion seventy killed and 
two hundred and two wounded. Squally good was the 
Twelfth. That brilliant and lamented young officer. Gen- 
eral R. E. Rodes, once made a little speech to this regi- 
ment in which he said that after Gettysburg General Lee 
had told him that his division had accomplished more in 
that battle than any division in his army, and tha* he 
himself would say that the Twelfth North Carolina was 
the best regiment in his division. 

It is probable that the life of an officer of this regiment 
was on one occasion saved in consequence of his having 
performed an act of humanity. It was in the morning at 
Cedar Creek and our people had been slowly driving the 
enemy when Captain Collins, of company C, heeding the 
cries of a wounded Federal, stopped for a moment to give 
him water. Having moved his canteen in front that he 
might do so more conveniently, in the hurry of rejoining 
his company, he forgot to replace it, and in a few min- 
utes it was pierced by a bullet. 

In the "seven days' battle'" this regiment had fifty-one 
men killed on the field. 

General Hancock having witnessed a very gallant but 
unsuccessful charge of the Fifth North Carolina at Wil- 
liamsburg, complimented it in the highest terms. Lieu- 
tenant Tom Snow, of this county, was killed on this occa- 
sion and his body was delivered to his friends by the 
Federals. 

With such Colonels as Christie, Blacknail and Davis, — 
the first two dying of wounds— the Twenty-Third could 
not fail in always being an "A No. 1" regiment. This 
brigade at Gettysburg had one hundred and eleven killed 
and three hundred and forty-four wounded. 

In the fall of 1864 near Winchester, General Bradley 
Johnson, of Maryland, was a witness of the conduct of 
this brigade under very trying circumstances, and he has 
recently written a very entertaining account of what he- 
saw, and in it he is very enthusiastic in his praise of their 



46 Pickett or. Pettigrew? 

courage and discipline, comparing them to Sir Colin 
Campbell's "'Thin Red Line" at Balaklava. 

This brigade consisted of the Thirty-Second, Forty - 
,; r B w d Third, Forty-Fifth, Fifty-Third and 
Second battalion, all from North Caro- 

lina. It was first commanded by Daniel, who was killed 
at Spottsylvania. Then by Grimes and after his promo- 
tion by Colonels, several of whom were killed. To say 
that this brigade accomplished more in the first day's 
battle than any other is no reflection upon the other gal- 
lant brigades of Rodes' division. General Doubleday, 
who, after the fail of General Reynolds, succeeded to the 
command of the First corps, says that Stone's Pennsyl- 
vania brigade held the key-point of this day's battle. 
These Pennsylvanians, occupying a commanding position, 
were supported by other regiments of infantry and two 
batteries of artillery. Daniel's right, Brabble's Thirty- 
Second Worth Carolina leading, had the opportunity given 
it to carry this "key-point" by assault, and gloriously did 
it take advantage of that opportunity. No troops ever 
fought better than did this entire brigade, and the num- 
ber of its killed and wounded was greater by far than that 
of any other brigade in its corps. The Forty-Fifth and 
Second battalion met with the greatest loss, the former 
having 219 killed and wounded, the latter 153 out of 240, 
which was nearly 64 per cent. When, on the morning of 
the 12th of May at Spottsylvania, Hancock's corps ran 
over Johnson's division, capturing or scattering the whole 
command, this fine brigade and Ramseur's North Caroli- 
na, and Rob Johnston's North Carolina, by their prompt 
ness and intrepidity, checked the entire Second corps and 
alone held it 'till Lane's North Carolina, Harris' Missis- 
sippi and other troops could be brought up. 

In the spring of 1864 when a force was being made up 
for the contemplated attack upon Plymouth two regiments 
were selected from Rodes' division (the Forty-Third 
North Carolina of this brigade and Mercer's Twenty-First 



Pickett or Pettigrew/ \7 

Georgia of Doles') and attached to Hoke's old brigade. 
Colonel Mercer, who was a North Carolinian, had com- 
mand of the brigade and was killed in the assault upon 
that town, as was Captain Hal Macon, of the Forty-Third. 
Lieutenant-Colonel Lewis, of this regiment, succeeded 
Mercer to the command and was shortly afterwards made 
Brigadier-General. The Forty-Third took a prominent 
part in the battle of Drewry's Bluff, and soon afterwards 
it was ordered to rejoin its own brigade. 

In the latter part of May, shortly after it had rejoined 
its brigade, our sharp-shooters having been driven 
from some old earth works in the vicinity of Hanover 
Junction, companies A and F (Duplin and Halifax) under 
Lieutenants Bostic, Farrior and Morris, numbering about 
seventy men, were detailed for the purpose of re-taking 
them. On the sudden appearance of this small force from 
the thick woods, which covered their approach, they wer-' 
ordered by the enemy — a full regiment — to surrender. 
To this they responded with a destructive fire and charging 
up to the works they fought across them for about two 
hours. A heavy rain having set in the firing ceased 
and the enemy withdrew under cover of the rain .and the 
approaching darkness. After the rain a survey of the 
field showed a larger number of the enemy killed and 
wounded than the two companies had carried into tne as- 
sault. Their brigade commander, General Grimes, on 
receiving a detailed repor c of this affair pronounced it one 
of the pluckiest and most successful little fights of the war. 

The above and the following extracts are taken from a 
history of the Forty-Third regiment, written by its gal- 
lant Colonel: It was in front of Petersburg on the morn- 
ing of April 2nd, 1865, and the enemy had made a breach 
in our line and occupied the Confederate works for some 
distance on either side of Fort Mahone, which stood on an 
elevation about fifty yards in front of the main line. The 
division, massing in this direction, attacked the enemy a<: 
close quarters, driving them from traverse to traverse, 



48 Pickett or Pettigkew? 

sometimes in a hand-to-hand fight, till the lost works were 
re-taken up to a point opposite Fort Mahone, which was 
still occupied b3~ the enemy. Its commanding position 
making its re-capture of importance in the further move- 
ments of the Confederates, two details of about twelve 
men each, in charge of a Sergeant — one from the Forty- 
Third (now commanded by Captain Cobb, Captain Whit- 
aker having been mortally wounded just previously), and 
the other from the Forty-Fifth regiment of the brigade — 
were ordered, about noon, to enter the fort by the covered 
way (a large ditch) leading from the main line into the 
fort. This was promptly done, and the enemy occupying 
the fort — more than one hundred in number — perhaps in 
ignorance of the small force of Confederates, and sur- 
prised at the boldness of the movement, surrendered and 
were sent to the rear as prisoners. 

Of the officers— General. Field, Line and Staff — and en- 

. ,. r ^ listed men from Halifax the number 

ti ahi ax Count v , .,, , ,, , - ,, , -,. , ■ , 

, _ T TX7 - killed, the number of tiiose who died of 
m The 'A sr 

wounds or were disabled by them, and 

the number of wounded who recovered, was rather large 
even for North Carolina troops. There was only one 
Q ?nerai, and he was mortally wounded. There were two 
Colonels, and one was disabled by his third wound and 
the other was wounded seven times; nearly every Captain 
and Lieutenant was struck at least once, many of tl em 
being Lilled. In a very short period preceding Appomat- 
tox four Captains — Sterling Gee, the Nicholson brothers, 
(William and Ed.) and Gary Whitaker— were killed. At 
the time of his death Captain Whitaker was commanding 
his regiment as he had been for nearly a year. Generals 
Ben McCulloch, killed at Pea Ridge; Felix Zollicoffer, 
killed at Mill Spring; L. O'B. Branch, killed at Sharps- 
burg, and Junius Daniel, mortally wounded at Spottsyl- 
vania, were natives of Halifax county, as is General W. 
R. Cox, who, the latter part of the war, commanded one 
of Rodes' crack brigades. General Daniel was the only 



Pickett or Pettigrew? 49 

one of these officers who was a citizen of the county when 
the war broke out. 

This famous brigade consisted of the Second, Fourth, 

„ , „ . . Fourteenth and Thirtieth North Car- 

Kamseurs Brigade. ,. TjL _ . , , 

° oiina. It was first commanded by 

General Geo. B. Anderson, who was killed at Sharpsburg. 
Then by Ramseur, who was promoted and killed at Cedar 
Creek. Then by Cox. The fondness of this brigade for 
prayer meeting and Psalm singing united with an ever 
readiness to fight, reminds one of Cromwell's Ironsides. 
It fought well at Seven Pines, where one of its regiments, 
having carried in six hundred and seventy-eight officers 
and men, lost rifty-four per cent, in killed and wounded. 
At Malvern Hill it met with great loss. It occupied the 
bloody lane at Sharpsburg. At Chancellorsville out of 
fifteen hundred and nine it had one hundred and fifty- 
four killed and five hundred and twenty-six wounded, or 
forty-five per cent. On the 12th of May at Spottsylvania 
it acted probably the most distinguished part of any brig- 
ade in the army. It did the last fighting at Appomattox, 
and about twenty-five men of the Fourteenth, under Cap- 
tain W. T. Jenkins, fired the last shots. To see these poor 
devils, many of them almost barefooted and all of them 
half starved, approach a field where a battle was raging 
was a pleasant sight. The crack of Napoleons, the roar 
of Howitzers and the crash of musketry always excited 
and exhilarated them, and as they swung into action they 
seemed supremely happy. 

Lane's brigade consisted of the Seventh, Eighteenth, 
Lane's Brigade Twenty-Eighth, Thirty-Third and Thir- 
ty-Seventh North Carolina. It was first 
commanded by General L. O'B. Branch, who was killed at 
Sharpsburg. The Seventh and Eighteenth appear upon 
Colonel Fox's percentage lable, both having in the "seven 
days' fight" lost fifty-six per cent. The numerical loss 
for the brigade was eight hundred and seven. At Chan- 
cellorsville it had 739 killed and wounded. In the history of 



50 Pickett or Pettigrew? 

this battle by Colonel Hamlin, of Maine, the conduct of this 
brigade is spoken of very highly. In Longstreet's assault 
as it moved over the field the two wings of its right regi- 
ment, Thirty-Seventh, parted company, and at the close 
of the assault were several hundred yards apart. The 
point of direction for the assaulting column was a small 
cluster of trees opposite to and in front of Archer's brig- 
ade, and while the rest of the line dressed on this brigade, 
by some misunderstanding, four and a half regiments of 
Lane's dressed to the left. It went some distance beyond 
the Emmitsburg road, but fell back to that road, where it 
remained 'till all the rest of the line had given way, when 
it was withdrawn by General Trimble. General Lane re- 
ported a loss of 660 killed and wounded at Gettysburg, 
most of which he says "occurred on the :3rd, his loss on 
the first being but slight." 

More than one Army of the Potomac friend has objected 

, _, to the fancied insinuation in the pamph- 

Now ana Then , , ,, ,, „ \ 

-, _ , .let that there were foreigners m the 

A Dutchman. ,, , . , °, , 

gallant army m which they served. 

The following little story is for their benefit: During the 

winter of 18*4 General Wilcox wrote to General Lane to 

know if he could catch a Yankee that night for General 

Lee, as some of the enemy were in motion and General 

Lee wanted to know what command it was. Lane sent at 

once for Major T. J. Wooten, commanding his corps of 

sharp-shooters, and the Major promised to catch one. 

With a few picked men he was compelled to crawl a long 

distance, as it was a moonlight night. When near enough 

to make the dash Wooten sprang to his feet, and with an 

exclamation unusual for him, said, "Boys, we have got 

him." They swept over the enemy's picket line and back 

again at a double-quick, without an accident. Instead of 

the promised Yankee, Wooten captured seven Dutchmen, 

and no one could understand a word of their "foreign 

gibberish." 



Pickett or Pettigrew? 51 

This superb brigade consisted of three regiments from 
. , , R . , Tennessee, one regiment and one bat- 
° ' talion from Alabama. It suffered very 
severely the first day: on the third it was gallantly led by 
Colonel Frye, who says, referring to the close of the as- 
sault: "I heard Garnett give a command. Seeing my 
gesture of inquiry he called out, 'I am dressing on you. ' A 
few seconds later he fell dead. A moment later a shot 
through my thigh prostrated me. The smoke soon be- 
came so dense that I could see but little of what was go- 
ing on before me. A moment later I heard General Pet- 
tigrew calling to rally them on the left. All of the five 
regimental colors of my command reached the line of the 
enemy's works, and many of my officers and men were 
killed after passing over it." Colonel Shepherd, who 
succeeded Colonel Frye in command, said in his official 
report that every flag in Archer's brigade, except one, was 
captured at or within the works of the enemy. 

On the night of July 4th, 1863, as General Lee's army 

Virginians to The 7*\ faUing ba< J f f °? Gettysburg 
„ y . T .. . . his tram was attacked near Monte- 

Rescue of Virginians. „ , ^.. , . , 

rey Pass by Kilpatrick's cavalry, 

and a number of ambulances filled with the wounded offi- 
cers of Rodes' division were captured. The First West 
Virginia led the charge, and supposing that our army was 
composed of Virginians, their watch- word or battle-cry. 
which was heard everywhere, was, "Virginians to the 
rescue of Virginians." None of these officers happened 
to be Virginians, and as they did not wish to be "rescued," 
they did not appreciate the efforts of their friends, the 
enemy, in their behalf. 

Two of General Early's brigades made a very brilliant 

Hoke's Brigade char S e on the second day; but being 
unsupported were forced to fall back. 
They were Hoke's North Carolina, commanded by Colonel 
Avery, who was killed, and Hayes' Louisiana. They did 
equally well in every respect, yet one is always praised, 



52 Pickett or Pettigrew? 

the other rarely mentioned. Mr. Vanderslice in his fine 
description of this affair does full justice to our North 
Carolina boys, and closes by saying: "It will be noted 
that while this assault is called that -of the 'Louisiana 
Tigers,' the three North Carolina regiments lost more 
men than the five Louisiana regiments." Hoke's brigade 
consisted of the Sixth, Twenty-First, Fifty-Fourth and 
Fifty-Seventh. First commanded by Hoke. After his 
promotion by Godwin, who was killed in the Valley, and 
then by Gaston Lewis. The Fifty-Fourth was on de- 
tached duty and did not take part in this battle. As Gen- 
eral Lewis was severely wounded at Appomattox he was 
probably the last officer in the army of his rank to meet 
with that misfortune. 

"But as he spoke, Pickett, at the head of his division, 

_, „ , , „. ,, rode over the crest of Seminary Ridge 
The School Girl's ,, ,. , , , ,, J , ° 

and began his descent down- the slope. 

As he passed me," writes Longstreet, 

"he rode gracefully, with his jaunty cap racked well over 

his right ear and his long auburn locks, nicely dressed, 

hanging almost to his shoulders. He seemed a holiday 

soldier." Echo repeats the words: A holiday soldier! 

A holiday soldier ! 

Sam Brown, Co. D, 24th N. 0. T., was the ideal Confed- 

„ , •_- , , erate soldier. Sam thinks he killed 

Killed a Thousand! ., , ., .-. , 

very near if not quite a thousand 

Yankees. For awhile he was a prisoner of war, and 
when drawn up in line that some of them might be select- 
ed for exchange a soldier near him begged the Surgeon to 
select him, saying that he had never killed a Union sol- 
dier as he had always held his gun up, whereupon Sam, 
in a low voice, cursed him and told him if he had him off 
in the woods he would kill him. The Surgeon overhear- 
ing this called him up and asked him how many of his 
people he had killed, and his answer was, "A heap of 'em. " 
"But tell me as near as you can how many," said the 
officer, and he replied, "Well, sir, if you would pack 



Pickett or Pettigbew? 53 

in this room like herrings in a barrel all I have killed, I 
think it would be about full." Instead of being angry. 
the Surgeon laughed and said, "I will let you go home, 
that other fellow is no good, he can stay here." 

From a book recently published, entitled, "Pickett and 

_ , His Men," the following para- 

Fav Your Money and , . , , ,. T . ... 

z, f Tr _, . graph is taken: "Pettigrew was 

lake Your Choice. 7 • i .i ^ j +u 

trying to reach the post of death 

and honor, but he was far away and valor could not an- 
nihilate space. His troops had suffered cruelly in the 
battle the day before and their commander had been 
wounded. They were now led by an officer ardent and 
brave, but to them unknown." 

Colonel Carswell McClellan, who was an officer of Gen- 
eral Humphreys' staff, comparing the assault made by 
this General at Fredericksburg with that which is known 
as Pickett's, says: "As the bugle sounded the 'charge,' 
General Humphreys turned to his staff, and bowing with 
uncovered'head, remarked as quietly and as pleasantly as 
if inviting them to be seated around his table, 'Gentle- 
men, I shall lead this charge. I presume, of course, you 
will wish to ride with me.' "Now, compare that to Pick- 
ett, who was not within a mile of his column when they 
charged at Gettysburg — Pettigrew and Armistead led 
Pickett's division there. Of this grand assault of Humph- 
reys I can do no better than quote General Hooker's re- 
port: 'This attack was made with a spirit and determi- 
nation seldom, if ever, equalled in war. Seven of General 
Humphreys' staff officers started with the charge, five 
were dismounted before reaching the line where General 
Couch's troops were lying, and four were wounded before 
the assault ceased.' " 

"We refer to the third day at Gettysburg so soon again 
_, ,. f because of a letter that reached us on Mon- 
day postmarked 'Charleston, S. C, April 9.' 
It comes from a soldier who did not belong to either Petti- 



5-4 Pickett or Pettigrew? 

grew's or Pickett's command. He writes, and he is clear- 
ly a man of education and fairness: 

" 'I am glad to see you are taking up the claim of Pet- 
tigrew* s brigade to share in the glory of Gettysburg. 
Why not go a little further ? Pettigrew led his division. 
Pickett did not. Pettigrew was wounded, and no mem- 
ber of his staff came out of the fight without being 
wounded or having his horse shot under him. Neither 
Pickett nor any member of his staff nor even one of the 
horses was touched. Why ? Because dismounted and 
on the farther side of a hill that protected them from the 
enemy's fire.' There is in this city a letter from a dis- 
tinguished, able, scholarly Virginian that states that 
General Pickett was not in the charge at all. There now ! 
The correspondent adds: 'Investigate the statement, and 
if correct, this will help to make history somewhat truth- 
ful.' He gives excellent authority— a gallant citizen of 
Savannah, Ga., who was in the battle and of whom we 
have known for more than thirty-three years. Let the 
whole truth come out as to the splendid charge on the 
third day, who participated in and who went farthest in 
and close to the enemy." — Wilmington Messenger-. 

The following extract is taken from a magazine article 

Tr .„ , written by Mr. J. F. Rhodes in 1899: 
Gov. Kemper Killed l . rri 

,, ' , "Then the Union guns re-opened. 

In Battle w , f . , * , . 

, „ , _, When near enough canister shot 

And Other Matters. -,-, , .,, ? .,, , 

were acided; 'the slaughter was ter- 
rible.' The Confederate artillery re-opened over the 
heads of the charging column trying to divert the fire of 
the Union cannon, but it did not change the aim of the 
batteries from the charging column. When near enough 
the Federal infantry opened, but on swept the devoted 
division. Near the Federal lines Pickett made a pause 
'to close ranks and mass for a final plunge.' Armistead 
leaped the stone wall and cried, 'Give them the cold steel, 
boys,' laid his hand on a Federal gun, and the next mo- 
ment was killed. At the same time Garnett and Kemper, 



Pickett or Pettigrew? 55 

Pickett's other brigadiers, were killed. Hill's corps wav- 
ered, broke ranks and fell back. 'The Federals swarmed 
around Pickett,' writes Longstreet, 'attacking on all sides, 
enveloped and broke up his command. They drove the 
fragments back upon our lines. Pickett gave the word 
to retreat." 

Mr. Rhodes is probably a young writer who, in his 
effort to say something thrillingly dramatic, has made 
nearly as many misstatements in the above as there are 
lines. Dealers in military pyrotechnics, as a rule, have 
little regard for accuracy. 

To give a clear idea of the closing events of this assault 
it will be well to mention several things not generally 
known. Just at the point which had been occupied, but 
was then abandoned by Webb's brigade, there was no 
stone wall, but a breastwork made of rails covered with a 
little earth. These works jutted out into the field. On 
both sides of this salient there were stone walls. Of the 
one thousand men who reached these works of rails and 
earth only about fifty followed Armistead to the aban- 
doned guns. The others stopped there. Seeing this all 
to their right, more than half the column did the same, 
and having stopped they were obliged to lie down. The 
left of the line continued to move on for a while when 
they, to prevent annihilation, also fell to the ground. 
This discontinuance of the forward movement, showing 
that the momentum of the charge had spent itself, meant 
defeat. Our men knew this, but there they lay waiting 
for — they knew not what. All other things that happen- 
ed — the capture of men, muskets and flags — were for the 
Federals mere details in reaping the harvest of victory. 

Leaving out Lane's brigade, which lay far over to the 

„ ~ _ , left in the Emmitsburg road, our 

bale Surrender or , . , . , . , , 

„ _ . , , line, which was so imposing at the 

Dangerous Retreat? , - , , ,, , 

beginning of the assault, covered 

the front of only two Federal brigades at its close. Into 

the interval between Lane's and Pettigrew's troops New 



56 Pickett or Pettigrew? 

Yorkers were sent, who attacked the left of the latter s 
own brigade. About the same time Vermonters moved 
up and fired several volleys into Pickett's right. Which 
body of these flankers first made their attack has been a 
subject of some dispute, but it is a matter of no import- 
ance. Neither attack was made before Armistead was 
wounded. But there is a matter of very great importance 
and that is to correctly decide which of the two contrary 
lines of action taken that day is the more honorable and 
soldier-like. Here were troops lying out in the open field, 
all of them knowing that they had met with a frightful 
defeat. Those on the left, seeing a move on the part of 
the enemy to effect their capture, thought it »a duty they 
owed themselves, their army and their country to risk 
their lives in an effort to escape. Acting upon this 
thought they went to the rear with a rush, helter r skelter, 
devil take the hindmost, and the most of them did escape. 
Those on the right when ordered to surrender did so al- 
most to a man. The North Carolinians, Alabamians and 
Tennesseeans upon the field felt that to surrender whe^i 
there was a reasonable hope of escape was very little bet- 
ter than desertion. If the opinions of the Virginians were 
not quite as extreme as this, they certainly would have 
been surprised at that time had they been told that their 
conduct was heroic. Since then maudlin sentimentalists 
have so often informed them it was that now they believe 
it. The time may come when history will call their sur- 
render by its right name. 

Mr. I. R. Pennypacker in his history of General Meade, 

published this A. D. 1901, in the 

The Latest History. „ Great Commanders Series," says: 

"General Pickett in person did not cross the Emmitsburg 
road. Of his three brigade commanders Garnett and 
Armistead were killed. And within twenty paces of the 
stone wall. Kemper was wounded and captured. Petti- 
grew and Trimble and three of their brigade commanders 
(Frye, Lowrance and Marshall) were wounded." 



Pickett or Pettigrew? 57 

It may be remarked that Colonel Marshall, of the Fifty- 
Second North Carolina Troops, commanding Pettigrew's 
brigade, was killed on the field, and as to General Armis- 
tead, Dr. Hubbard, acting medical director of the Elev- 
enth corps, reports that shortly after he (Armistead) was 
wounded he was taken to his hospital and there died on 
the afternoon of the 4th. 

Mr. Pennypacker pays this monograph the compliment 
of giving it as authority for some of his statements. 

The late General James Dearing, of Virginia, at the 
„ } time of the battle an Artillery Major, wit- 

° ' nessed the assault, and shortly afterwards, 

giving a description of it to a friend of the writer, men- 
tioned a circumstance which partly accounts for the fact 
that all of Pickett's troops were not captured. It was 
that from the very start individuals began to drop out of 
ranks, and that the number of these stragglers continued 
to increase as the line advanced, and that before a shot 
had ever been fired at the.m it amounted to many hun- 
dreds. This conduct on the part of so many must be taken 
into consideration in accounting for the shortness of our 
line at the close of the assault; also that the troops both 
to the right and left dressing upon Archer's brigade there 
was in consequence much crowding towards the centre. 
By adding to these causes the deaths and wounds, the ex- 
planation of a condition which has puzzled many writers 
is readily seen. 

This road which is so often referred to runs nearly diag- 

_-■',, . , ^ , onally across the field. At a 

ihe bmmitsburs; Rosa. , , , ,, ,. 

* point where the troops on the 

left crossed it was only a few rods from the Federal lines. 

On the right where Pickett's men crossed it was not very 

far from ours. 

General Longstreet is supposed to have always thought 

_, „ - that after the second of Pettigrew's 

"The Post of , . , ,, 

_ t1 r „ ,, brigades gave way there were none 

Death and Honor. „ TT . n . , , ,, ,, „ n 

of Hill s troops left upon the field. 



58 PlGKETT OR PETTIGREW? 

This General, while honest, was so largely imaginative 
that his statement of facts is rarely worthy of credence. 
He says that "Pickett gave the word to retreat." There 
are very many old soldiers, many even in Richmond, who 
do not believe that Pickett was there, or anywhere near 
there, to give that word. That in the beautiful language 
of a recent writer, "He may have been trying to reach 
the post of death and honor, but he was far away, and 
valor could not annihilate space." 

General Longstreet is reported recently to have said at 

. n h Gettysburg that if General Meade had 

, , , a ' advanced his whole line on July 4th he 

tiV ( /UTSCIVCS 

would have carried everything before 

him. It is hardly fair for General Longstreet to do so, . 

but he is evidently judging the army by. his troops, some 

of whom are said to have been so nervous and shaky after 

this battle that the crack of a teamster's whip would 

startle them. He is mistaken, for it must be remembered 

that the enemy was about as badly battered as we were, 

and that the troops composing Ewell's and Hill's corps 

had beaten this enemy only two months before when it 

was on the defensive. Now we would have been on the 

defensive; is it probable that we would have been beaten? 

Having boldly advanced a little way, he halted grace- 

_, „. _ _ fully, "with his iauntv cap 

"The King ol France /' „ T - • A 

„*. , ^, . ,f t -r ,, racked well over his right ear, 

With Shield and Lance. , , . , , , , 

and his long auburn locks, 

nicely dressed, hanging almost to his shoulders." My! 
My! A little hartshorn, Mr. Apothecary! 

With the exception of South Carolina probably no State 
. in the Confederacy had so few soldiers "ab- 

sent without leave" as North Carolina. Ow- 
ing to unfortunate surroundings neither the head of the 
army nor the administration ever realized this fact. The 
same harshness that forced thousands of conscripts into 
the army who were unfit for service, and kept them there 
until death in the hospital released them, caused more 



Pickett or Pettigrew? 59 

soldiers from North Carolina (some of whom had shed 
their blood in defence of the South) to be shot for this so- 
called desertion than from any other State. Though the 
military population of the Tar Heel State was not as great 
as that of at least two of the others, her soldiers filled 
twice as many graves, and at Appomattox, Va., and 
Greensboro, N. C, surrendered twice as many muskets as 
those of any other State. There was a singular fact in 
connection with these so-called desertions. In summer, 
when there was fighting or the expectation of a fight, they 
never occurred. Only in winter, when the men had time 
to think of their families, hundreds of whom were suffer- 
ing for the necessaries of life, did the longing desire to 
see them and minister to ther wants overcome every other 
sentiment, and dozens of them would steal away. 

Wonder and surprise must be felt by any intelligent 
officer of any of the European armies who 

r rides over that part of the field held by the 

Army of the Potomac which was assaulted 
on the afternoon of July 3rd, 1863. Wonder that sixty or 
seventy thousand men occupying the commanding posi- 
tion they did and supported by hundreds of cannon should 
have felt so much pride in having defeated a column of 
less than ten thousand. For had their only weapons been 
brick-bats they should have done so. Surprise that Gen- 
eral Lee should have had so supreme a contempt for the 
Federal army as to have thought for a moment that by 
any sort of possibility the attack could be successful. 

No longer ago than last August a New York magazine 

contained an elaborately illustrated 

article descriptive of the Gettvsburg 
Northern History. , ,,, , ,, . , ,, ., 

battle-field. As long as the writer 

confines himself to natural scenery he acquits himself 

very creditably, but when he attempts to describe events 

which occurred there so many years ago he flounders 

fearfully. Of course Pickett's men advance "alone.'* Of 

course there is a terrifnc hand-to-hand battle at what he 



60 Pickett or Pettigrew? 

calls the "bloody angle." In this battle he says that 
many of Doubleday's troops lost from twenty-five to forty 
per cent. "The slaughter of the Confederates was fearful 
— nearly one half of them were left upon the field, Gar- 
nett's brigade alone having over three thousand killed 
and captured." This is Northern history. 

Now for facts: Pickett's men did not advance "alone.'" 
There was no terrific battle inside the enemy's works. 
None of Doubleday's troops lost there from twenty-five to 
forty per cent. There was not one regiment in Hays', 
Gibbons' or Doubleday's commands which, after the shell- 
ing, lost one-fourth of one per cent. As to Garnett's 
brigade, as it carried in only two thousand or less and 
brought out a considerable fragment, it could hardly have 
had over three thousand killed and captured. It did have 
seventy-eight killed and three hundred and twenty-four 
wounded. 

General Doubleday, in writing to ask permission to 
make use of the pamphlet in a history he was then pre- 
paring, suggested only one alteration, and that was in re- 
gard to Stannard's Vermont brigade, which had fought 
only the day before and not the two days as the pamph- 
let had it. 

On the retreat Kilpatrick attacked our ambulance train 

, T . „ J . , . and captured many wounded officers 
Union Sentiment m . „ ,„ . ,, 

, _ f . of Ewell s corps. Among them was 

North Carolina. , , . , ? , . 

one from my brigade, who, when in 

hospital, was asked by a Federal surgeon if the well- 
known Union sentiment in North Carolina had anything 
to do with the large proportion of wounded men from that 
State. Being young and inexperienced in the ways of 
the world he indignantly answered, "No." 

Early in the war the best troops in the Army of North- 
ern Virginia could not have fighting 

u ** * enough. At that time they were simple 

^' enough to believe that there was some 

connection between fame and bravery. After a while 



Pickett or Pettigrev."? til 

they learned that a dapper little clerk of the quartermas- 
ter's department, if he had the ear of the editor of the 
Richmond "Examiner," had more to do with their repu- 
tation than their own courage. When this fact became 
known there was "no more spoiling for a fight,'' but it 
was very often felt to be a hardship when they were called 
upon to do more than their proper share of fighting. 

This brigade was composed of the Eleventh, Twenty - 
, . Sixth, Forty-Seventh, Fifty-Second 

lgrew s nga e. ^^ Forty-Fourth North Carolina. 
When the army went on the Gettysburg campaign the 
last named regiment was left in Virginia. That this brig- 
ade had more men killed and wounded at Gettysburg than 
any brigade in our army ever had in any battle is not so 
much to its credit as is the fact that after such appalling 
losses its morale was so little impaired that it was among 
the troops selected for the rear-guard when the army re- 
crossed the river. Captain Tuttle's company of the Twen- 
ty-Sixth regiment went into the battle with three officers 
and eighty-four men. All the officers and eighty-three of 
the men were killed or wounded. In the same battle com- 
pany C of the Eleventh regiment, had two officers killed 
and thirty-four out of the thirty-eight men killed or 
wounded. Captain Bird with the four remaining men 
participated in the assault of the third day, and of them 
the flag bearer was shot and the Captain brought out the 
colors himself. He was made Major, and was aftewards 
killed at Reams' Station. 

The Fortieth, Forty-Seventh and Fifty-Fifth Virginia 
_ , , , , regiments and Twenty-Second Virgin- 

... la battalion composed this brigade. 

^ ' Up to the re-organization of the army 

after Jackson's death, it formed a part of A. P. Hill's 
division. The fact that it did not sustain its reputation 
at Gettysburg had no effect upon the general result of that 
battle. Their loss was twenty-five killed and one hundred 
and forty-three wounded. 



62 Pickett or Pettigrew? 

If any searcher after the truth of the matter consults 

, . r the records and other sources of relia- 

Lon°strcet s Alen. , , . . 

* ble information, paying no attention 

to the clap-trap of Virginia writers, he will find, to say 
the least, that the troops of Ewell's and Hill's corps were 
the peers of the best and the superiors of a large part of 
the soldiers of Longstreets corps. In the battle of the 
second day if the four brigades of McLaws' division had 
fought as well as did Wright's, Perry*s and Wilcox's of 
the Third corps, we would have undoubtedly gained a. 
victory at Gettysburg. Hood's was the best division, but 
it was defeated at Wauhatchie, Tenn., by troops that the 
men of the Second and Third corps had often met and 
never failed to drive. As to Pickett's ''writing division": 
From Malvern Hill to Gettysburg was exactly one year, 
and in this time the four great battles of Second Manas- 
sas. Sharpsburg. Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, 
and twice as many of less prominence were fought by the 
army or parts of the army. In these battles Lane's North 
Carolina, Scales' North Carolina and Archer's mixed 
brigade of Tennesseeans and Alabamians had three thous- 
and six hundred and ten men killed and wounded. In 
the same period Armistead's Virginia. Kemper's Virginia 
and Garnett's Virginia had seven hundred and seventy - 
two killed and wounded. 

At Gettysburg where it had one hundred and two killed 
, . and three hundred and twenty-two 

* wounded it was a small brigade, as at 

Chancellorsville only two months before it had met with 
a loss of nearly seven hundred. In the third day's as- 
sault. General Scales having been wounded, it was com- 
manded by Colonel Lowrance, who was also wounded as 
was every field officer and nearly every company officer 
in the brigade. This gallant little organization consisted 
of the Thirteenth, Sixteenth, Twenty-Second, Thirty- 
Fourth and Thirty-Eighth North Carolina. Its first com- 
mander was Pettigrew, who was severely wounded and 



Pickett or Petti grew ? 63 

captured at Seven Pines. Then came Pender, then Scales, 
late Governor of North Carolina. 

Mr. W. H. Swallow, of Maryland, a Confederate soldier 
and a writer of some note, was wounded at Gettysburg, 
and in one of his articles descriptive of the battle, says: 
"General Trimble, who commanded Pender's division and 
lost a leg in the assault, lay wounded with the writer at 
Gettysburg for several weeks after the battle, related the 
fact to the writer (Swallow) that when General Lee was 
inspecting the column while in front of Scales' brigade, 
which had been fearfully cut up in the first day's con- 
flict, having lost very heavily, including all of its regi- 
mental officers with its gallant commander, and noticing 
many of Scales' men with their heads and hands bandaged, 
he said to General Trimble: 'Many of these poor boys 
should go to the rear; they are not able for duty." Pass- 
ing his eyes searchingly along the weakened ranks of 
Scales' brigade he turned to General Trimble and touch- 
ingly added: 'I miss in this brigade the faces of many 
dear friends." * * In a few weeks some 

of us were removed from the town to a grove near the 
wall that Longstreet had assaulted. As the ambulances 
passed the fences on the Emmitsburg road, the slabs were 
so completely perforated with bullet holes that you could 
scarcely place a half inch between them. One inch and a 
quarter board was indeed a curiosity. It was sixteen 
feet long and fourteen inches wide and was perforated 
with eight hundred and thirty-six musket balls. I learn- 
ed afterwards that the board was taken possession of by 
an agent of the Pennsylvania Historical Society. This 
board was on that part of the fence where Scales' brave 
little brigade crossed it." 

This brigade was composed of the Tenth, Twenty-Third 

Steuarts Brigade and Thirt y-Seventh Virginia, the 
Maryland battalion and the First and 
Third North Carolina. When General Ed. Johnson, sup- 
ported by two of Rodes' brigades, made his attack on the 



04 Pickett oe Pettigrew? 

morning of the third day, this brigade displayed conspic- 
uous gallantry. Had General Longstreet moved forward 
at the same time, the story of Gettysburg might have 
been written very differently. The Third North Carolina 
possessed in a pre-eminent degree the mental obtuseness 
peculiar to so many North Carolina troops. Try as they 
would they never could master the art of assaulting en- 
trenchments or fighting all day in an open field without 
having somebody hurt. In the Sharpsburg campaign it 
had more men killed and wounded than any regiment in 
the army. At Chancellorsville there were only three — all 
North Carolina — whose casualties were greater, and at 
Gettysburg (losing fifty per cent.) it headed the list for its 
division. The First North Carolina, a somewhat smaller 
regiment, in number of casualties always followed close 
behind the Third, except at Mechanicsville, where it went 
far ahead. It was indeed also one of those fool regiments 
which could never learn the all-important lesson which 
so many of their more brilliant comrades found no diffi- 
culty in acquiring. 

Colonel Fox in his "Regimental Losses," says: "To all 
this some may sneer and some may say, 'Cui Bono?' If 
so let it be remembered that there are other reasons than 
money or patriotism which induce men to risk life and limb 
in war. There is the love of glor} r and the expectation of 
honorable recognition: but the private in the ranks ex- 
pects neither; his identity is merged in that of his regi- 
ment; to him the regiment and its name is everything; he 
does not expect to see his own name appear upon the page 
of history, and is content with the proper recognition of 
the old command in which he fought. But he is jealous 
of the record of his regiment and demands credit for every 
shot it faced and every grave it filled. The bloody laurels 
for which a regiment contends will always be awarded to 
the one with the longest roll of honor. Scars are the true 
evidence of wounds, and regimental scars can be seen 
only in its record of casualties." 



Pickett or Pettigrew? 65 

The Navy Department is anxious to recruit apprentices 

. . and sailors from the South Atlantic States 

— especially from the sound indented coasts 

of the two Carolinas. Carolinians, it is said, make model 

jack tars, as they have made conspicuously gallant and 

capable soldiers in all our wars.— New York Tribune. 

This fine brigade formed a worthy part of A. P. Hill's 

., _. , and Pender's famous "light di- 

A , ~ ,. ri . , vision. ' Though it had other 
South Carolina Brigade. ~ , „ , ~ 

Generals, two of whom — Gregg 

and Perrin — were killed on the field, it generally went by 
the name of the officer who led it so gallantly at Chancel - 
lorsville. Lane's and Scales' brigades always felt safe 
when they had the Palmetto boys on their flank. A his- 
tory of their command states that for the war they had 
killed or died of wounds twelve hundred and seventy- 
nine and deaths by disease eleven hundred and twenty- 
nine. At Gettysburg their killed and wounded numbered 
five hundred and seventy-seven; and all this loss was met 
with on the first day while fighting by the side of Scales' 
brigade. It was composed of Orr's Rifles, First, Twelfth, 
Thirteenth and Fourteenth, all from South Carolina. 
Lieutenant Jno. A. Morgan, Co. A 1st N. C. T., was a 
handsome young fellow, always gay 

■ TT . ' * _. and happy. In General Ed. John- 

In His Own Iran. , , „ , . , ,,, , XT . 

' son s report of his battle near Win- 
chester he is complimented for his gallantry in serving a 
gun with the assistance of a staff officer after all the gun- 
ners had been killed or wounded. He afterwards furn- 
ished a good illustration of the "old saw" about one 
falling in a pit he had digged for another. It was in May, 
1864, in the Wilderness, and Jack was on the skirmish 
line near the plank road. An expert Federal sharp-shoot- 
er was making himself very disagreeable. He was be- 
hind a tree and would expose himself only for an instant 
while firing. Jack with one of his men made a plot to 
kill him. "See him," said he, "I am going to cross this 



66 Pickett or Pettigrew? 

road and when the Yank pokes his head out to fire at me 
you must shoot it off." Poor Jack had gotten only about 
half way across when he fell with a bullet through his 
thigh. And the Yank ? For all that is known to the con- 
trary, he is living to this day. 

'•You'll be damned if you do. 
Tar Heels, Pelicans You'll be damned if you don't; 

and You'll be damned if you will, 

Puddino Heads. You'll be damned if you won't— 

You'll be damned anyway !" 

Early in the war a number of Confederates laid down 
their arms at Roanoke Island as did an equal number 
somewhat later at the Forts below New Orleans. On 
July 3rd, 1863, a large number surrendered in the open 
field at Gettysburg. In the first instance the men cap- 
tured were North Carolinians, and their act in doing what 
was absolutely unavoidable was criticised most unmerci- 
fully. In the second, they were Louisianians, and sym- 
pathy was generally expressed for them. In the last 
they were Virginians, and the world has never tired of 
sounding their praises. 

Second Battle of Manassas:— All other brigades, not in- 

„ ,,..,„ . . eluding North Carolina and Vir- 
Battleneld Statistics. . . , , -, .,, -, A 

gmia, loss averaged — killed and 

wounded 305. North Caralina brigades averaged 260. 

Virginia brigades averaged 168. Kemper, Garnett and 

Armistead (Virginia) averaged 163. 

Sharpsburg — Omitting North Carolina and Virginia: — 
Twenty-three other brigades averaged killed and wounded 
284. Seven North Carolina brigades averaged killed and 
wounded 355. Eight Virginia brigades averaged killed 
and wounded 158. Kemper, Garnett and Armistead aver- 
aged killed and wounded 126. 

Fredericksburg — Omitting North Carolina and Virginia: 
— Twenty-one brigades averaged killed and wounded, 100 
and a fraction. Seven North Carolina brigades averaged 
killed and wounded 260. Seven Virginia brigades aver- 



Pickett or Pettigrew? 67 

aged killed and wounded 50 and fraction. Kemper none 
killed, 3.8 wounded. Armistead and Garnett in reserve. 

Gettysburg: — Seven and a half North Carolina brigades 
averaged killed and wounded 502. Eight and a half Vir- 
ginia brigades averaged 264. Kemper, Garnett and Ar- 
mistead averaged 454. 

How much punishment must a body of troops receive 

r» r u «;•., I, before they can, without discredit 

Defeat With Honor. , ,, •; , ,, , ,, 

to themselves, confess that they 

nave been defeated ? In answer it may be stated that in 
front of Marye's Hill at Fredericksburg, Maegher's and 
Zook's brigades lost in killed and wounded, respectively, 
thirty-six and twenty-six per cent., and that the killed 
and wounded of the fifteen Pennsylvania regiments, con- 
stituting Meade's division, which broke through Jack- 
son's line, was 36 per cent. This division was not only 
> < pulsed but routed, and yet they were deservedly con- 
sidered amongst the very best troops in their army. Or- 
dinarily it may be safely said that a loss of twenty-five 
per cent, satisfies all the requirements of military honor. 
( h'dinarily is said advisedly, for with us very much de- 
pended upon knowing from what State the regiment or 
brigade hailed before it could be decided whether or not 
it was justified in retreating. When on the afternoon of 
the third day of July, 1863, Pettigrew's, Trimble's and 
Pickett's divisions marched into that ever-to-be remem- 
bered slaughter pen, there was one regiment in the first 
named division, the Eleventh Mississippi, which entered 
the assault fresh, carrying in three hundred and twenty- 
five officers and men. After losing two hundred and two 
killed and wounded, it with its brigade, left the field in 
disorder. Correspondents of Virginia newspapers wit- 
nessing their defeat accused them of bad behavior. Vir- 
ginian historians repeated their story and the slander of 
brave men, who had lost sixty per cent, before retreating, 
lives to this day. In the spring of 1862 an army, consist- 
ing of ten regiments of infantry, one of cavalry and two 



68 Pickett or Pettigrew? 

batteries of artillery, was defeated in the valley and the 
loss in killed and wounded was four hundred and fifty- 
five. In the summer of 1863 there were eight regiments 
in the same division who took part in a certain battle and 
were defeated; but they did not confess themselves beat- 
en 'till the number of their killed and wounded amounted 
to two thousand and two (2,002) — a loss so great that it 
never was before or afterwards equalled in our army or 
in any American army. In the first instance all of the 
troops were from Virginia and as consolation for their 
defeat they received a vote of thanks from the Confeder- 
ate Congress. In the second case five of the regiments 
were from North Carolina and three from Mississippi. 
Did our Congress thank them for such an unprecedented 
display of endurance ? No, indeed ! Corrupted as it was 
by flattery and dominated by Virginian opinion; the only 
wonder is that it refrained from a vote of censure. 

Four regiments of infantry and one of cavalry from 
North Carolina served in the Western 
*' army with credit to themselves and 
State, and surrendered with it at Greensboro. They were 
the Twenty-Ninth, Thirty-Ninth, Fifty-Eighth, Sixtieth 
and Sixty-Fifth. The last was generally known as the 
Sixth cavalry. 

The Fifteenth, Twenty-Seventh, Forty-Sixth and Forty - 
. , Eighth regiments composed this brigade. 
* ' It met with its greatest losses at Sharps- 
burg, Fredericksburg, Bristoe Station and the Wilderness. 
The Fifteenth, while in Cobb's brigade, suffered great 
loss at Malvern Hill in addition to above. The Twenty- 
Seventh was probably more praised for its oonduct at 
Sharpsburg than any regiment in the army. The Forty- 
Eighth had more men killed and wounded in this battle 
than any regiment of its corps. 

The Twenty-Fourth, Twenty-Fifth, Thirty-Fifth, Forty - 

, _ . T Ninth and Fifty-Sixth made up this 
Ransoms Brigade. hv{g ^ It probably met with its 



Pickett or Pettigrbw? 69 

greatest loss at Malvern Hill. The Twenty-Fourth of this 
brigade and the Fourteenth of Geo. B. Anderson's both 
claim that after this battle their dead were found nearest 
to where the enemy's artillery had stood. The brigade 
also displayed conspicuous gallantry at Sharpsburg, Fred- 
ericksburg, Drewry's Bluff, and the brilliant capture of 
Plymouth. 
Governor Vance called them his "seed wheat." There 

„ were four regiments and one battalion 

junior Reserves. „ , , „, , - ,, 

J of these troops. They were used for the 

most part to guard bridges from raiders, but a large part 

of them fought at Wise's Fork, below Kinston, and at 

Bentonville, where they acquitted themselves creditably. 

A witness has told the writer of having seen one of these 

children who a few days before had lost both eyes by a 

musket ball. He said it was the "saddest sight of a sad, 

sad war." On towards the close of the war a party of 

Federal raiders having attempted to enter the town of 

Mariana, Fla., succeeded in doing so only after a stout 

resistance on the part of the old men and boys of the 

place. There was an officer among these Yanks who 

after the war was stationed at Mariana, and while there 

he told a citizen of the place that of the two hottest times 

he had ever seen, one was upon the occasion of his first 

paying them a visit, and the other when his command at 

Bentonville faced a lot of North Carolina boys, who did 

not have sense enough to know when they were whipped. 

After the fall of Fort Fisher several battalions of heavy 

"Red Lee" Infantry artiller ^ which had been occupying 
* *' the other forts near the mouth of the 

Cape Fear, were withdrawn and armed as infantry, joined 

Johnston's army. No troops ever fought better than they 

did at Kinston and Bentonville. 

While the notices of the pamphlet have been generally 

_ . . favorable, it was not to be expected that all 

would be so. There are those who see no 

need for re-opening the question herein discussed. While 



70 Pickett or Pettigrew? 

confessing that a part of our troops have been directly 
wronged by slanderous words and all of them wronged by 
implication, they assert that time only is required to 
make all things even, and that the dead past should be 
allowed to bury its dead. Peace-loving souls, they dep- 
recate controversy, believing that from it will result only 
needless heart-burnings. 

Then again there are others who object not only to the 
tone and temper of the article, but to the mere statement 
of indisputable facts. There should be, they say, a feel- 
ing of true comradeship among all who have served in the 
same army, especially in such an army as ours. That 
comrades should assist and defend each other in person 
and reputation, and under no circumstances should any- 
thing be done or said to wound or offend. To admit that 
there has been provocation in one direction does not jus- 
tify provocation in another, for two wrongs never yet 
made a right. That to write of anything to the discredit 
of a part of the Army of Northern Virginia is to a certain 
extent to injure the reputation of the whole army, and 
that a sentiment of loyalty to that army and love for its 
head should prompt its veterans to place its honor above 
all other considerations. Some old soldiers within and 
some without the limits of the State have expressed these 
opinions. Many others ma}* entertain them. It may be 
they are right. It may be they are wrong. What is right 
or what is wrong, who can tell ? However, there are 
many who think when once an effort in behalf of justice 
is begun it should be continued 'till that end is attained, 
and be it remembered that the justice demanded is for 
the dead who cannot defend themselves. 

This disvision was made up for General Hoke in the 
. . spring of 1864 and acting with the 

° e s v ■ troops afterwards known as the Fourth 
corps, fought under Beauregard the decisive battle of 
Drewry's Bluff. Later it became part of the grand old 
Army of Northern Virginia. An association which along 



Pickett or Pettigrew? 71 

with much glory brought to it a full share of priyation and 
death. Late in December it was ordered to North Caro- 
lina where for a month it held the enemy below Wilming- 
ton in check. When the fragment of Johnston's army 
reached the State it joined it, took a prominent part in the 
battle below Kinston and of Bentonville and surrender- 
ed with it at Greensboro. When in Virginia it had four 
brigades, two from North Carolina and one each from 
South Carolina and Georgia. While in North Carolina a 
fifth composed of Junior Reserves and "Red Legged" In- 
fantry, was added. General Johnston in his history 
speaks of it as "Hoke's splendid division." 

The Seventeenth, Forty-Second, Fiftieth and Sixty - 

„. 1 , „ „ . , Sixth North Carolina composed this 

Kirklana s Brigade. , . , , . , „ •> 3 

fy brigade, and it was first commanded 

by General James Martin. It was not sent to Virginia 
'till the spring of 1864, when it was placed in a division 
made up for CJeneral Hoke. It was hotly engaged in the 
battle of Drewry's Bluff, at Cold Harbor, at Bentonville, 
Kinston, etc. But it is probable that the hardships en- 
dured in the trenches at Petersburg were responsible for 
more deaths than all the bullets of the enemy. 

Seven North Carolina batteries served in Virginia. All 

of them were very efficient, but three of them 
Artillery 

- ' were so remarkably fine that it is a tempta- 
tion to name them. 

We had five regiments and one battalion of cavalry to 
serve in Virginia. They were the Ninth, Nine- 

- ' teenth, Forty-First, Fifty-Ninth and Sixty- 
Third North Carolina troops; but generally known as 
the First, Second, Third, Fourth and Fifth cavalry and 
Sixteenth battalion. If there was a cavalry regiment in 
the army which was the best it probably was the first 
named of these. It furnished the following Generals: 
Robert Ransom, who was promoted; Lawrence Baker, who 
was disabled by wound; Jas. B. Gordon, who was killed; 
and R. Barringer. The Fourth regiment and Sixteenth 



72 Pickett or Pbttigrew? 

battalion were in a brigade commanded first by Dearing 
and then by Roberts. 

This was a heavy artillery regiment stationed at Fort 

Fisher when the final attack was 

, „ %. _; made upon this fort. After the 

North Carolina Troovs. „ . ,, ,. • , , ,. 

fire from the ships had dis- 
mounted their big guns and the assault by land was be- 
ing made, they snatched up their muskets and showed the 
enemy how well they could use them. It is now general- 
ly conceded that not in the whole war did a body of sol- 
diers ever struggle so long and so desperately against the 
inevitable. From traverse to traverse, from gun-cham- 
ber to gun-chamber for several hours the hopeless struggle 
went on. Captain Hunter's company had fifty-eight men 
killed and wounded out of eighty present. A letter from 
a gallant member of the company says: "There never 
was a formal surrender. It (the fort) was taken by 
piece-meal — that is, one gun-chamber at a time." When 
the capture of this place was announced in Richmond and 
before any of the facts regarding it were known, the 
abuse and vilification heaped upon its devoted garrison 
was something astonishing even for that very censorious 
city. 
This brigade was composed of the Eighth, Thirty-First, 

. , Fifty-First and Sixty-First North 
CHngman's Brigade. Carolina It served in South Caro . 

lina a great part of the war, and for the gallant conduct 
of the Fifty-First in the defense of Fort Wagner, this 
regiment was complimented in orders. The brigade took 
a prominent part in the brilliant capture of Plymouth. 
It was engaged at Goldsboro, Batchelor Creek and at 
other points in North Carolina before it went to Virginia, 
which it did early in 1864. There it became a part of the 
command of Major-General Hoke. After having heroic- 
ally borne all the privations and dangers which fell to the 
lot of this "splendid division," as styled by General Joe 
Johnston, it surrendered with it at Greensboro. 



Pickett or Pettigrew? 73 

The compiler of our Roster adds up the number of names 

< printed in the four volumes, and 

, _. ,. _, makes a total of 104,498; but to 

North Larolma Troops. . , 

^ arrive at an approximation of 

the real number many subtractions and very many more 
additions will have to be made. The First Volunteers 
was a six months regiment (twelve companies) and was 
disbanded when its term of enlistment expired. All of its 
companies re-enlisted, and thus these men were counted 
twice, eight of these companies, with the addition of two 
new ones, becoming the famous Eleventh regiment. 
Many officers were counted three, four and sometimes five 
times in cases where they had been successively promoted. 
There were a great many transfers from one regiment to 
another, and in nearly every instance the individual 
transferred would be counted with both regiments. The 
Fourth cavalry battalion was incorporated in a regiment, 
and its 271 names are counted twice. The Seventh battal- 
ion (detailed artisans) contains the names of 402 men who 
were detailed from regiments in active service, and of 
course they were counted twice. All of these repetitions 
would probably reduce the number given by the compiler 
of the State Roster by 3,600 and make it about 100,900. 
On the other hand this number should probably be in- 
creased by 9,100. One entire regiment (the Sixty-Eighth) 
which carried upon its rolls at least 1,000 names, is not 
counted, for none of its rolls could be found. In many 
regiments the rolls printed were those in use the last year 
of the war, when they had been reduced to skeletons. 
For instance, in the Sixtieth regiment the rolls of only 
nine companies could be found, which carried upon them 
only 467 names. The surviving officers of the missing 
company getting together, made out a roll from memory 
embracing the whole war, and the number of names was 
114. So it is certain that this regiment should have had 
more than twice as many names as it is credited with. 
The fighting Twenty-Seventh is only allowed 802 officers 



74 Pickett or Pettiorew? 

and men, when the Twenty-Sixth and Twenty-Eighth are 
both given considerably more than 1,800. The Thirty - 
Seventh is credited with 1,928 names, while the Fifty- 
Fourth has only 663. Both of these regiments served in 
the Army of Northern Virginia, and it is a fair presump- 
tion that they both received about the same number of 
conscripts. Basing his calculations upon our Roster, and 
some other sources of information, the writer has arrived 
at the conclusion that the number of soldiers furnished by 
North Carolina to the Confederacy was about 110,000. Of 
course hundreds of this number shortly after enlisting 
were discharged as unfit for service. Many more should 
have been discharged and were not, but were required to 
undergo hardships that they were physically unable to 
bear, and the consequence was that they died by thous- 
ands. 

Of the number furnished, nineteen thousand six hun- 
dred and seventy-three are known to have been killed 
outright or died of wounds. Other thousands lost legs 
and arms, or were otherwise mutilated for life. Twenty 
thousand six hundred and* two are known to have died of 
disease; and very many of these deaths are directly at- 
tributable either to the ignorance of our surgeons or the 
misdirected zeal that prompted them to retain in service 
men who were unfit for its duties, many of them being 
little better than confirmed invalids. 

The great statistician, Colonel Fox, says: ••The phrase, 
'Military population,' as used in the eighth census, repre- 
sents the white males between the ages of eighteen and 
forty-five, and included all who were unfit for military 
duty on account of physical or mental iniirmities. These 
exempts — which include also all cases of minor defects- 
constitute in every country one-fifth of the military pop- 
ulation." Taking one-fifth from our military population 
we should have furnished to the Confederate armies nine- 
tv-two thousand two hundred and ninetv-seven soldiers. 



Pickett or Pettigrew? 75 

But as said above we did send to the front about one hun- 
dred and ten thousand, thirty-six per cent, of whom died. 
All this sickness and sorrow, mutilation and death came 
to them, not for having violated any law of God or man, 
but for the doing of what they had an inalienable right to 
do. The pity of it ! The pity of it ! ! But let it go. The 
past is dead and beyond recall. Yet there are times when 
the feeling comes over one that if there isn't a hell there 
ought to be, and the killers of these thousands of innocent 
men should fill it. When quarters are being assigned to 
the slayers sufficient room should be reserved for the de- 
famers of their victims. 

OUR DEATHLESS DEAD. 



Xo name of mortal is secure in stone ; 

Hewn on the Parthenon, the name will waste; 

Carved on the Pyramid, 'twill be effaced: 
In the heroic deed, and there alone, 
Is man's one hold against the craft of time. 

— Edwin Markham. 



j^:p:pe:nx>ix. 



Army Correspondents. 

Headquarters, Army of N. Va. 
Sept. 9th, 1863. 
Seddon, Hon. James A., Sec'ty of War, 

Richmond, Va. 

Sir: — The letter of Governor Vance, of North Carolina, 
of Aug. 20th, with regard to the causes of dissatisfaction 
among the North Carolina troops in the army, with your 
endorsement, has been received. I regret exceedingly 
the jealousies, heart-burnings and other evil consequences 
resulting from the crude mis-statements of newspaper 
correspondents who have necessarily a very limited ac- 
quaintance with the facts about which they write, and 
who magnify the troops from their own State at the ex- 
pense of others. But I can see no remedy for this. Men 
seem to prefer sowing discord to inculcating harmony. 
In the reports of officers justice is done to the brave sol- 
diers of North Carolina, whose heroism and devotion 
have rendered illustrious the name of the State on every 
battle-field on which the Army of Northern Virginia has 
been engaged. * * * I believe it would be better to 
have no correspondents of the press. * * * I need not 
say that I will with pleasure aid Governor Vance in re- 
moving every reasonable cause of complaint on the part 
of men who have fought so gallantly and done so much 
for the cause of our country; and I hope that he will also 
do all in his power to cultivate a spirit of harmony and 
bring to punishment the disaffected who use these causes 
of discontent to further their treasonable designs. 

I am with great respect, 

Your obedient servant, 

R. E. Lee, General. 



Dr. Theo. B. Kingsbury in Wilmington "Messenger." 

* * * As to General Pettigrew, it has been mention- 
ed more than once in The Messenger that the accomplish- 
ed daughter of the late very eminent Virginian, Commo- 



Appendix. 77 

dore M. F. Maury, had written to Dr. Kemp P. Battle, 
professor of history, etc., in the University of North 
Carolina, that she had heard her father say more than 
once that if General Lee we're to be killed or to retire from 
the command of the army General Pettigrew was the 
man above all others to succeed him. 

All well informed North Carolinians know well of Gen- 
eral Pettigrew. He was beyond doubt the finest scholar 
and his was the most superb intellect that was ever taught 
and trained at the University of North Carolina. We re- 
peat what is authentic, and what we published more than 
twenty-two years ago. When the body of the great John 
C. Calhoun was lying" in state at Charleston, the most 
distinguished of all South Carolina lawyers, James L. 
Pettigru entered the hall, a venerable and leading citizen 
leaning on his arm. These two prominent men of South 
Carolina stood regarding the remains of the great logician 
and statesman. The citizen said: "Calhoun is dead, 
and, alas! there is no one to take his place." To this 
Pettigru replied: "You are mistaken. I know a higher 
intellect than Mr. Calhoun ever had." "Who can it be?" 
replied his friend. Mr. Pettigru said: "My kinsman. 
Johnston Pettigrew." Our North Carolinian had been 
for several years the law partner at Charleston of his em- 
inent relative, South Carolina's ablest lawyer. General 
Pettigrew richly deserves a statue at the hands of his 
people — the people of North Carolina. 



A Story of Gettysburg. 

* * * "W e formed in line with A. P. Hill's corps, our 
right resting on his left, Davis' Mississippi brigade: the 
railroad cut being in front, and in that cut were Confed- 
erates and Federals mixed up from a fight in which they 
had been engaged. On the right of the railroad, near a 
barn (which was filled with Federal sharp-shooters), were 
two Federal flags. To our front came an officer calling 
for volunteers to take those flags. They charged to the 
top of the hill, had a hand to hand fight with the Federal 
color guard, took the flags and then the battle proper be- 
gan. Our line of battle was advanced and we soon be- 
came engaged with Reynolds' and part of the Eleventh 
corps. The battle at this point was severe, many killed 
and wounded on both sides; here we captured about five 



78 Pickett or Pettigrew? 

thousand prisoners, and it was at. this place that <seven- 
teen out of thirty-five of my company (Franklin Rifles) 
were shot down at one fire, of which I was one, beino" 
wounded in the left side. * * * —B. F. Parke, Co. K 
32d X. C. T., in News-Observer. 



Death of Colonel Burgwyn. 

Carbonton, N. C, Aug. 10th, 1894. 
(■apt. W. R. Bond, 

Dear Sir: — I was a Lieutenant in Co. H 26th N. C. T., 
wounded twice in the first day's battle while carrying the 
colors of the regiment pulled from under Captain Mc- 
Crary, who fell on them in front of me, after about twelve 
men had been shot down with them. After I was shot 
Colonel Burgwyn (one of the finest officers of his age in 
the army) took the colors from me, and while handing 
them to one of the men was shot and fell within a few 
feet of me and was dead in a few minutes. We suffered 
terribly from the fire on our left where Brockenbrough 
did not come to time. I am very truly yours, 

G. Wilcox. 

[Colonel Harry Burgwyn, the gallant young commander 
of the Twenty-Sixth North Carolina, was a native of 
Northampton county. Handsome, clever and brave, he 
was worthy of the eulogy bestowed by General Napier 
upon one his of brother officers: "No man died on that 
field with more glory, and yet many died and there was 
much glory."] 



Longstreet and North Carolina Soldiers. 

We copy a brief communication that will serve as an 
eye-opener to Longstreet's real claim upon North Caroli- 
na sympathizers. Our correspondent writes: 

"There are some old soldiers from North Carolina who 
have always liked and admired General Longstreet and 
they regret to see the strictures upon him in a recently 
published pamphlet. If they will read carefully the fol- 
lowing facts from the official records relating to the 
Sharpsburg campaign, they may feel that their partiality 
has been misplaced: 

"General Longstreet had in this campaign nine North 



Appendix. 79 

Carolina regiments, whose killed and wounded averaged 
one hundred and four. In his corps there were eighty 
regiments from other States and their average was sixfcy- 
four. In the eighty there were twenty-two Virginia reg- 
iments and their average was thirty-two. The Forty- 
Eighth North Carolina had more men killed and wounded 
than any regiment of its corps. The Third North Caro- 
lina, of Jackson's corps, had more men killed and wound- 
ed than any regiment in the army. In fact, more than 
the entire brigades of Generals Armistead and Garnett 
combined. At the conclusion of his report of the opera- 
tions of this campaign, General Longstreet mentions the 
names of thirty-eight officers who had distinguished 
themselves for gallantry. In this number there is not 
one brigade or regiment commander from North Caro- 
lina." — Messenger. 

II II 

Regimental Losses. 

A study of regimental actions shows clearly that the 
battalions which faced musketry the steadiest, the longest 
and the oftenest, were the ones whose aggregate loss dur- 
ing the war was greatest. Fighting regiments leave a 
bloody wake behind them; retreating regiments lose few 
men. At Chancellorsville the heaviest losses were in + he 
corps that stood — not in the one that broke.— -Fo.v. 



Letters, Press Notices, Etc. 

Tacoma, Wash.. April 28th, L898. 
To any ex-Officer N. C. Confed. Vet., 

Wilmington, N. C. 

Dear Sir: — My experience since the war has been that 
when I wanted any information or favor South to go to 
some fellow who had followed the "Stars and Bars." 
while I was under the "Stars and Stripes," ' and I have 
never had any hesitation in so doing. 

Some of my friends here are North Carolina men. The 
State's attorney is a son of Governor Vance, and one of 
our Superior Court Judges was a boy in the Twenty-First 
North Carolina regiment. He was at Gettysburg but not 
actively engaged in that memorable battle. We Feds 
and Confeds drink from the some canteen and fight our 
battles over and hurrah for one country and one flao-. 



80 Pickett or Pettigrew? 

At a little conference a short time since at which some 
Virginia men were present, we discussed Pickett's charge. 
Of course Virginians wanted all the glory of that historic 
but misdirected event. From my personal knowledge I 
know North Carolina troops had a hand in the charge, 
which I asserted put Virginia in the shade. Of course I 
was disputed and could not at the time furnish the proofs, 
but said I would. 

Now, to the point: After the war I received from a 
North Carolina Confederate officer a pamphlet which dealt 
with facts and figures, which although not official were 
never disputed and proved my assertion. This book I 
kept for years, but am now unable to find it. You proba- 
bly know of the book referred to and of the officer who 
wrote it and a copy would be a great favor to me and your 
North Carolina friends settled here. Hoping I have found 
the right man, I am Yours truly, 

Geo. H. Boardman, 
Formally 22d Maine Vols. 

A pamphlet w T as sent him and the following is taken 
from one of his letters to the writer: 

Tacoma, AVash. 
Dear Sir: — * * * I was in the trenches at Port Hud- 
son, and Richmond papers often found their way into our 
camp. In them we always found that the Virginia troops 
were the best the world ever saw. Never any word of 
praise for the other State troops which we who had been on 
the Potomac in '62 and early in '63 knew to be their equal. 
The items put me very much in mind of our own papers 
North that made some of our dress parade Generals the 
greatest on earth and ignored the ones who were doing 
the fighting and bearing the brunt of the battles. We in 
the gulf, who had met the Confederates from Louisiana, 
Mississippi, Georgia and Texas and found their staying 
qualities, had reason to be thankful that we did not have 
to meet the Virginia troops. Perhaps you will ask, "Why 
did North Carolina particularly interest you ?" The rea- 
son may appear trivial but it was first caused by the re- 
mark of an officer who had fought all three days at Get- 
tysburg. It was near the close of the war and we were 
discussing the "Rebs." Hesaid: "If the Virginia troops 
who take all the credit, had been as well handled and 
fought as hard as the North Carolinians Gettysburg 
would write different in history." "Why," said he, "they 



Appendix. 81 

simply gave us hell ! They had their colors nailed to the 
mast and went down with the ship."' * * * 

Yours truly, 

Geo. H. Boardman. 



Where The Dead Lay. 

The following is an extract from a letter written by a 
resident of Chicago, Major Chas. A. Hale, who has the 
honor of having served in the Fifth New Hampshire, a 
regiment which fought gallantly at Gettysburg, and is 
distinguished for having sustained the greatest losses in 
battle of any infantry or cavalry regiment in the whole 
Union army: 

"There is not a shadow of a doubt in my mind but that 
the sons of North Carolina, Tennessee and Mississippi 
carved on the tablets of history equal laurels with the 
sons of Virginia in the great events of that supreme at- 
tempt to gain victory at Cemetery Ridge. Pettigrew and 
Trimble deserve equal honors with Pickett, and if we 
weigh with judicial exactness more, for impartial evi- 
dence proves that they suffered in a greater degree, and 
forced their way nearer the lines where pitiless fate bar- 
red their entrance. The nearest point reached by any 
troops was Bryan's barn; this is made conclusive by evi- 
dence on both sides. If there were a thousand Confeder- 
ates inside the stone wall at the angle more than two- 
thirds of that number must have been Pettigrew's men." 

[The National Tribune.] 

Washington, D. C, May 22, 1900. 
Capt. W. P. Bond, 

Dear Sir: — I have read your pamphlet, "Pickett or Pet- 
tigrew ?" with great interest. It is a most valuable con- 
tribution to the history of the war, and I want to compli- 
ment you highly upon it. I wish that many more of the 
ex-Confederates would follow the example, and that of 
the Union soldiers, and write of battles and compaigns as 
they saw them, instead of following the dreary round of 
the earliest published accounts, which so abound in what 
Tolstoi has happily termed "military mendacity." The 
National Tribune has been an encouragement to the Union 
soldiers to write their memories of the war, and it is gen- 
erally conceded that we have been useful in this way in 



82 Pickett or Pettwrew? 

developing the actual story of the war, and getting rid of 
its fictions — at least our share of them. 

I would very much like permission to re-publish a good 
part of your pamphlet in The National Tribune. This will 
be helpful to you in creating an interest in your pamphlet 
in a very wide circle of readers of war literature. 

Respectfully, 

John McElrey, Editor. 

The late Lewin W. Barringer, of Philadelphia, some- 
time ago wrote: "I have had handed to me by a personal 
friend, an officer of the Union army, your pamphlet en- 
titled 'Pickett or Pettigrew ?' As stated in my letter to 
him returning the pamphlet, you do certainly hammer the 
truth into the Virginians, and I know as a North Caro- 
linian that what you state is absolutely true. The records 
prove it, we saw it, and history ought to tell it?" 



How Pickett's Division "Absquatulated." 

Pickett's division of the Army of Northern Virginia 
is rarely heard of either before or after Gettysburg. No 
body of troops during the last war made as much reputa- 
tion on so little fighting. Newspaper men did the work 
by printer's ink and the casualties were small. 

Fourteen hundred and ninety-nine were captured at 
Gettysburg. More than this number "absquatulated" 
when Petersburg fell and there was a probability of leav- 
ing Virginia. Pickett's division made a poor show at the 
surrender at Appomattox. — Abbeville (S. C.) Medium. 



^Esop's Fable — The Dog and the Bone. 

"They digged a pit, 

They digged it deep, 

They digged it for their brothers; 

But it so fell out that they fell in 

The pit that they digged for t'others." 

We have read with much interest a pamphlet by Cap- 
tain W. R. Bond, entitled "Pickett or Pettigrew?" in 
which the writer, a North Carolinian, proposed to show 
and does show very conclusively that the losses of Petti- 
grew's North Carolina brigade in this charge were greater 



Appendix. 83 

than those sustained by Pickett or, indeed, by any com- 
mand in the army. He claims that the Twenty-Sixth 
regiment of this brigade suffered greater loss than that of 
any command in modern times. The fate of one company 
in this regiment recalls Thermopylae; it was literally wiped 
out — every man in it was either killed or wounded. This 
pamphlet makes a glorious showing for the resolute cour- 
age and intrepidity of the North Carolina troops, but it is 
endorsed by the brave boys here who fought b}^ their side. 
It also pays a high tribute to the Tennesseeans engaged 
in that bloody fight, according them the place they occu- 
pied in it and the meed of praise they justly won. — Galla- 
tin (Tenn.) Examiner. 

Hall and Sledge are the publishers of this remarkable 
pamphlet, which not only disparages Virginia and Vir- 
ginia papers as they were during the war between the 
States, but even Pickett's Virginians. The world has 
passed upon all these matters, and its verdict will not be 
changed. — Richmond Dispatch. 

W. W. Owen, of New Orleans, late Lieutenant-Colonel 
of Washington artillery, A. N. V., wrote: "I have just 
seen a newspaper account of 'Pickett's charge,' by Cap- 
tain W. R. Bond, and am anxious to obtain a copy. I was 
at the battle of Gettysburg and I think his account of it 
will agree with my idea about it, at least as far as Pickett 
was concerned." 

T. Blyler, Captain in the Twelfth New Jersey, writes: 
"•Your division (meaning Pettigrew's) advanced in our 
front and we bear willing testimony to your bravery and 
to penetrating farther than Pickett." 

W. II. Shaver, of Kingston, Pa., who belonged to the 
Philadelphia brigade, writes: If convenient, say to Cap- 
tain Bond that I have read his pamphlet with very great 
interest as well as astonishment, for we of the North 
know of no other soldiers in the charge but 'Pickett and 
his Virgjnians. ' It is a well written article and will 
cause history to be re-written." 

J. D. Vautier, of Philadelphia, historian of the Eighty- 
Eighth regiment of Pennsylvania Volunteers, writes: "I 
think it an excellent treatise. It appears to be the im- 
pression that the Virginians did about all the fighting on 
the Southern side during the war. To be a Virginian was 



84 Pickett or Pettigrew? 

to be all that was good. The record shows that the North 
Carolinians were away up head." 

W. E. Potter, Colonel of the Twelfth New Jersey, writes: 
"In an address delivered by myself at Gettysburg, May, 
1886, I called attention to the gallant conduct of the North 
Carolina troops and the extent of their losses when com- 
pared with Pickett's. So far as I know my speech was 
the first publication to point out the fact that the troops 
of Pickett constituted the minor portion of the assaulting 
column." 

Colonel George Meade, of Philadelphia, the son of Gen- 
eral Meade, who commanded the Federal forces in this 
battle, writes: "I am glad to find in it certain facts that 
confirm what has been my own impression as to the im- 
portant part taken by the North Carolina troops in the 
assault at Gettysburg on the afternoon of the 3rd of July. 
I must congratulate you on having presented your case 
so strongly. 

Captain W. R. Bond, a North Carolinian and a Confed- 
erate soldier, who agrees with Colonel Batchelder, of 
Massachusetts, the Government historian of the battle of 
Gettysburg, that the brilliant military exploit popularly 
known as "Pickett's charge" should be called "Long- 
street's assault," has wriiten a pamphlet to call attention 
to the_fact that Pettigrew's division of North Carolina 
troops in this charge went further and stayed longer and 
had more men killed than Pickett's division of Virginians. 
Captain Bond presents some interesting statements in the 
course of his narrative. 

It may be added that the North Carolinians also lost by 
one of the frequent mischances that govern the direction 
of popular praise, their share of the glory that their brav- 
ery should have gained, and which Pickett's division 
gathered in for itself. — Philadelphia Press. 

II II 
Tar Heels Forever. 

Colonel Cameron quotes from Judge Schenck's work 
the letter of the South Carolina Charles Pinckney, writ- 
ten 24th February, 1779, to "his aunt, Mrs. Pinckney. As 
throwing much light upon what North Carolina was doing 
at that time in aid of South Carolina, we copy it. Mr. 
Pinckney wrote: 



Appexdix. 85 

"As to farther aid from North Carolina, they have 
agreed to send us 2,000 more troops immediately. We 
have now upwards of 3,000 of their men with us, and I 
esteem this last augmentation of their number as the 
highest possible mark of their affection for us, and as the 
most convincing proof of their zeal for the glorious cause 
in which they are engaged. They have been so willing 
and so ready on all occasions to afford us all the assistance 
in their power that I shall ever love a North Carolinian, 
and join with General Moultrie in confessing that they 
have been the salvation of the country." — News-Observer. 



North Carolina on the Firing Line. 

One of the two American officers killed in the big battle 
at Tien Tsin last Friday was a North Carolinian. The old 
North State can always be expected to show up on the 
firing line. It was from North Carolina that the first 
declaration of independence was hurled at Great Britian. 
It was on North Carolina soil that the battle of Alamance 
was fought in 1771, which was the forerunner of the rev- 
olution. In that fight Robert Thompson, a North Caro- 
linian, was the first man killed, and he was shot by 
Colonel Tryon, the British governor of the colony. On 
June 10th, 1861, the first soldier of the Southern Confed- 
eracy was killed in battle. He was a North Carolinian. 
His name was Henry Wyatt, and he lost his life at Big- 
Bethel, Va. In the Spanish-American war, the first 
American killed was a North Carolinian, Ensign Worth 
Bagley. Finally, Lieutenant Lemley, of North Carolina, 
was either the first or second American officer killed in 
the Chinese world-wide war now being waged. It is the 
proud boast of North Carolinians that she was "in the 
forefront at Bull Run, farthest at Gettysburg and last at 
Appomattox."— Clarksville (Texas) Times. 



I write you a letter, as I wish to tell you about certain 
conversations I lately had with an old Confederate — an 
officer of high rank, and one who, after the war, was on 
intimate terms with General Lee. * * * In one of the 
conversations referred to mention was made of the letters 
of General Cobb (who was killed at Fredericksburg) which 
have lately been published. In one of these letters Gen- 



86 Pickett or Pettigrew? 

eral Cobb says that Mr. Davis and General Lee thought 
there was only one State in the Confederacy, and that was 
Virginia. In referring to it I remarked that, allowing a 
little for exaggeration, I did not think he was very far 
wrong; that I supposed it was much the same in the other 
States, and that I knew of the persistent injustice, and 
sometimes even cruelty, with which North Carolina and 
her troops were treated. He at once came to the defence 
of General Lee, and said he knew positively that he was 
not responsible for much of the injustice of which I com- 
plained; that in the matter of appointing and promoting 
officers General Lee often had very little influence. For 
instance, after Jackson's death, when the army was reor- 
ganized and the two corps made into three, he was bitter- 
ly opposed to having A. P. Hill and Ewell for corps com- 
manders. He wished to have Rodes — an Alabamian — to 
command one of them, and also wished to give a division 
to Pettigrew and he always said if his divisions and corps 
had been commanded at Gettysburg by officers of his 
choice he would have gained that battle. But, said Gen- 
eral , as the Secretary of War was a Virginian, and 

the infiuenence of Virginia politicians was so all-powerful, 
both in the executive mansion and the halls of our Con- 
gress, his wishes were not considered. Though a Virgin- 
ian, he spoke at length of this baneful influence which 
festered for four years in Richmond. And just here it 
may be remarked that probably the most humiliating 
thing connected with our struggle for independence- 
more humiliating even than defeat— was the fact that 
North Carolinians and other free born men should ever 
have allowed themselves to be at all dominated by a pub- 
lic opinion, which was made by a sorry lot of ignoble 
bomb-proof hunters. * * * Bodies in motion, by their 
momentum, advance in the direction of least resistance. 
A body of soldiers making an attack forms no exception 
to this law of physics. When the Philadelphia brigade 
of Gibbon's division, which had been roughly handled the 
day before, gave way as our men got in charging dis- 
tance this point of least resistance was filled by Confeder- 
ates — a disorganized mob of about 1,000— in which sever- 
al brigades had representatives, and this is very foolishly 
called the "high water mark of the Confederacy." Why, 
there was not a fresh regiment in the Federal army which 
could not have defeated this body, and there was a whole 
corps of fresh regiments at hand. The Sixth, which by 



Appendix. . 87 

many was considered the best in the army had hardly 
fired a shot. If there was any high water mark connect- 
ed with this battle it was reached the afternoon before, 
while McLaws, Hood and Anderson were doing their 
fighting — and the precise time was when Wright's brig- 
ade, of the last named division, having driven the enemy 
before them, had carried a battery of twenty guns. 
Shortly afterwards one of McLaws' brigades gave way, 
and with its defeat went our fortunes. Every shot fired 
by us the next day was one more nail in the coffin of the 
Confederacy. — W. A\ B., in Wilmington Messenger. 



"Pickett or Pettigrew?" 

We have before us the second edition of this historical 
essay. It was first published in 1888 and the copy before 
us is revised and enlarged by the author. Captain W. R. 
Bond, once staff officer in Daniel's" brigade. 

Captain Bond was neither in Pickett's or Pettigrew's 
command and wrote the essay in order to vindicate the 
soldiers of North Carolina who fought the battle of Get- 
tysburg and did not receive due credit for their conduct 
on such occasions. 

It may surprise some but it is a fact that Captain Bond 
proves from the records that Pettigrew's men advanced 
farther than Pickett's on the day when it is claimed that 
Pickett did the whole business. This fact has long been 
known among the survivors of Gettysburg, but there has 
been so much exaggeration about Pickett's charge that it 
is generally believed no one else was on the field and there 
was a fearful slaughter of the Virginians. The cold fact 
is that the average regimental loss in Pickett's division 
was fifteen killed which was nothing to compare with 
the losses of other regiments. 

Captain Bond supports what he has to say by the rec- 
ords, by the list of casualties and by what was said by 
men who were in the battle of Gettysburg. 

The-book is neatly printed by The Commonwealth office 
of Scotland Neck, and the style of the work is first-class 
in every respect. The paper is good, the type clear, the 
make-up according to art and the book is neatly trimmed. 

The book is a valuable contribution to the truth of his- 
tory.— Abbeville (5. C.) Medium. 



88 Pickett or Pettigrew? 

"Pickett or Pettigrew ?" an historical essay by Captain 
W. R. Bond. Paper, 91 papes, price 25 cents. W. L. L. 
Hall, publisher, Scotland Neck, North Carolina. 

People in the north see everything partaining to the war 
of 1861-5 through northern made spectacles. The vision 
at times is, liable to be biased and distorted through par- 
tisan prejudices. This historical essay is from a Southern 
standpoint, and may be partisan, but it is well worthy a 
perusal. The auther quotes much of history and has 
opinions that are decidedly well expressed. — Kingsley 
down) Times. 

An interesting contribution to the history of the battle 
of Gettysburg is afforded in a pamphlet essay entitled 
"Pickett or Pettigrew ?" by Captain W. R. Bond, a Con- 
federate staff-officer in the army of Northern Virginia. 
Captain Bond's desire is to correct the commonly received 
accounts of the parts taken in that battle by the troops 
commanded by Generals Pickett and Pettigrew. * * * 
General Longstreet, according to Captain Bond, is largely 
responsible for the current misrepresentation of the 
Southern side of the story of Gettysburg, and he tells in 
detail a curious story of the favoritism displayed all 
through the war towards everything Virginian at the ex- 
pense of the soldiers from the other Southern States. — 
Springfield Republican. 

It contains some interesting statements from the South- 
ern, and especially from North Carolina, point of view, 
the object of its author being to show that undue credit 
has been given to Pickett's Virginia brigades at the ex- 
pense of the brigade of Pettigrew from North Carolina. 
The author contends that undue prominence has been 
given to the part taken by Virginia troops in the war of 
the rebellion, owing to the leading part taken by Virginia 
newspapers and Virginia historians in reporting the 
events of the war. He shows that North Carolina leads 
in the report given in Colonel Fox's paper on the "Chances 
of Being Hit in Battle." Of the troops losing the most 
men Mississippi comes next, and Virginia does not appear 
at all. He has suggestive reference also to the possibility 
of General Longstreet being of Gascon descent. Alto- 
gether his little pamphlet is lively reading.— A rmy and 
Navy Journal. 

This little book is well written and the author corrects 



Appendix. 89 

a number of errors which have been published about cer- 
tain battles of the late unpleasantness. It is worth read- 
ing. — Tallahassee Floridian. 



General Ulysses Doubleday. 

Captain Bond's pamphlet showing that Pettigrew and 
not Pickett is entitled to the glory that graced the Con- 
federate banners at the battle of Gettysburg, is bearing 
fruit. It is bound to convince any fair-minded man who 
will read it. A private letter to the author from Asheville 
says that the writer had a long conversation with General 
Doubleday, a Federal officer and brother of the General 
Doubleday mentioned in the pamphlet. ''General Double- 
day contended," continues the letter, ''that Pickett's men 
did as so-called history says they did, and reaped all the 
glory. " I asked him as a personal favor to read the essay, 
"Pickett or Pettigrew ?" He has just finished telling his 
opinion. Said he: "It opened my eyes. Your brave 
men have been slandered. Captain Bond gives chapter 
and verse. It is a fine essay." — Roanoke News. 



Louisiana Tigers. 

Major Bob Wheat's Louisiana battalion, known 
as the "Tigers," was raised in New Orleans. This name 
appealed to the melo-dramatic instincts of the half edu- 
cated young war correspondents from both sides the Po- 
tomac, and they have succeeded in casting a glamour of 
romance over as rough and unmanageable a lot of "toughs" 
as ever shouldered a musket in any cause. At first the 
name "Tigers" was confined to one company. Later it 
was taken by the battalion. Major Wheat was killed at 
Gaines' Mill, and as after his death there was no one left 
who could control it the battalion was broken up and its 
companies distributed among the regiments of its brigade. 
Thus the organization itself died; but its name grew and 
flourished 'till everything that hailed from Louisiana was 
called a tiger. The father of Major Wheat was profes- 
sor of Rhetoric at the University of North Carolina in the 
fifties. 



90 Pickett or Pettigrew? 

[From General Bradley T. Johnson.] 

The Woodlands, Amelia C. H., Va., June 12, 1900. 

My Dear Captain Bond: — I thank you for your exhaus- 
tive and able historical review of Pettigrew or Pickett ? 
* * * It is a monument of which North Carolinians 
for unnumbered generations will be proud. 

My heart always was with North Carolina; my precious 
wife was a North Carolinian and North Carolina gave her 
arms to equip my regiment — First Maryland. My son and 
only child was born there, and my heart is as loyal to her 
to-day as it was in 1851 when I married the noblest of her 
daughters, and in 1861 when she gave us arms. 

[General Johnson's recent bereavement intensifies his 
love for North Carolina.] 

[From General Geo. D. Johnston.] 

Tuscaloosa, Ala., June 15, 1900. 
My Dear Captain Bond: — * * * You certainly have 
put a new phase on the famous charge at Gettysburg. 
The facts, which you have arranged with great skill, 
clearly substantiate your claim that on that memorable 
field Pettigrew and his gallant North Carolinians were 
primi inter pares. Your fearless vindication of this his- 
toric truth, and your loyalty to your comrades of the old 
North State, are worthy of all honor. I, too, am a North 
Carolinian, and in sympathy with whatever redounds to 
the credit of North Carolina. 

The following extract is taken from a letter written by 
a near relative of General Pettigrew, a minister of the 
gospel and one of the very best men who ever lived. He 
has lately gone to "the rest that remaineth for the people 
of God." 

Ridgeway, Warren Co., N. C, May 26, 1900. 

My Dear Sir: — * * * I was forcibly impressed with 
the ability with which you have sustained the cause of 
our men, as well as the patriotism with which you have 
done so, and I thank you very much for it. 

But I fear that slander will live longer thah truth, 
unjust and cruel as the former may be; which, if it be so, 
will only be another evidence of the falsity of history, 
even among those who call themselves honorable. It was 
so in Roman history, it has been so in English history, 
and it has been so in Virginia history. Wherever the 
preponderance of the writers of the history of a country 



// 
Appendix. 91 

is there will also be the claims of renown; and succeed- 
ing generations will believe its falsehoods for truth. But 
I thank you for having so faithfully striven to stem the 
current of falsehood and injustice that we have received 
at the hands of our neighbors. 

Yours very sincerely, 



General Graham. 

Moore's "Civil War" contains a description of this bat- 
tle by G. I. Goss, who, in describing Longstreet's assault, 
says: "In the bloody ruck hundreds of their best officers 
went down. It was the turning point of the grand drama, 
and with the sun, on the third day of July, went down 
the sun of the Confederacy forever. Although known as 
Pickett's charge, General Graham, whom I met yesterday, 
informs me that Pickett himself was not in it. He de- 
scribes him as a coarse, brutal fellow, and says he treated 
him with the greatest inhumanity after the battle, whilst 
wounded and a prisoner in his hands." 

Mr. F. S. Harris, of Nashville, Tenn., a veteran of 
Archer's brigade, writes: "I desire to thank you for the 
noble defense of Heth's division from the injustice so long 
done them. * * * I have always been proud of the old 
North State. My great-grandfather and one of his 
brothers were signers of the Mecklenburg Declaration, and 
three-fourths of the men of Archer's brigade trace their 
genealogy to North Carolina. As fighters they had no 
superiors, and Archer's Tennesseeans always felt proud 
and absolute^ safe when Pettigrew's or Pender's North 
Carolinians were on their flank." 

When the first edition of the pamphlet came out the 
National Tribune said: "After an inexplicable silence of 
nearly twenty-five years the North Carolinians are begin- 
ning to assert themselves in regard to the charge on the 
third day at Gettysburg. Every student of the history of 
the war knows that it was not Pickett, of Virginia, but 
Pettigrew, of North Carolina, who was entitled to the 
principal credit for the charge. Pickett started out in 
command of the charging column, but stopped when 
within half a mile of our line, while Pettigrew went on 
with his North Carolinians and reached the farthest point 
attained by any rebel troops. 



92 Pickett or Pettigrew? 

[Professor Dubar, Historian.] 

Boys' High School. ] 
Brooklyn, May 31, 1900. J 
Mr. W. L. L. Hall, Scotland Neck, N. C. 

Dear Sir: — The pamphlet, "Pickett or Pettigrew?" is at 
hand and has been read with intense interest. The co- 
gent presentation made by Captain Bond is admirable. 
The wide field that he has covered in his investigation 
and the excellent form in which he has stated the results 
are most satisfying to the student of the late war. Would 
that we had more such students. 

Some years since my attention was directed to the mat- 
ter of Pickett's charge at Gettysburg, in connection with 
a detailed study of the great battle. The result of the re- 
searches made led me, in spite of myself, to the conclu- 
sion quite similar to what is here given. The data that 
influenced me were the comparative losses of the South- 
ern regiments engaged in the famous attack, and the re- 
markable fact, also given by Captain Bond, that Pickett's 
division did not often appear in other struggles as nota- 
bly distinguishing itself. * * * 

Yours very truly, 

John B. Dunbar. 



The Best Soldiers. 

After copying the statement that Admiral Sicard and 
Commander West, of the Navy, preferred North Carolin- 
ians because of their "size, health, soldierly bearing, in- 
telligence and everything that goes to make up a good 
soldier or sailor," the Wilmington Messenger gives other 
outside testimony of the superiority of North Carolinians 
as soldiers. Dr. Kingsbury sums up in a few sentences 
expert testimony that is of the highest value. We quote: 

"And he reminds us of a conversation with Mr. Wal- 
lace, the oldest member of the Petersburg bar in 1866. In 
company with the late Rev. Dr. Thomas H. Pritchard, the 
pastor of the First Baptist church in that historic little 
city, and afterwards pastor of the First Baptist church in 
Wilmington, we were dining with Mr. Wallace. After 
dinner we were all sitting on the porch, Mr. Wallace said 
'that General A. P. Hill was a kinsman of his wife, and 
while Grant was beleaguering Petersburg, he often took a 
meal with them. Once sitting where we now are, I 



Appendix. 93 

asked him which troops in the Army of Northern Virginia 
he regarded as the best. He surprised me with his answer 
as he was a Virginian by birth and so am I. He said, 
'North Carolinians are the best.' 'Why so ?' I inquired. 
His reply was, 'They are as brave as any men and being 
more obedient to authority they are better soldiers. They 
will do what you tell them to do.' Of course we were 
pleased at this testimony. Governor Vance told us in 
1872, (we believe it was), at Trinity College, that he had 
recently met General Wade Hampton, of South Carolina, 
at Charlotte, and he had said to him, 'Vance, I do not 
know how it was, but the best soldiers I saw in the war 
were from North Carolina.' We published these opinions 
quite twenty years ago, when Dr. Pritchard and Senator 
Vance were living. We could produce other testimony of 
a similar kind from officers of rank, not natives of this 
State." — News-Observer. 

The following is taken from a very valuable article 
treating of Longstreet's assault, which recently appeared 
in the Memphis Commercial-Appeal. It was written by 
Captain James I. Metts, a gallant officer of the ever fa- 
mous Third North Carolina: 

"Samuel C. Wilkinson, of the North, says, 'So terrible 
was our musketry and artillery fire that when Armis- 
tead's brigade was checked in its charge, and stood reel- 
ing, all of its men dropped their muskets and crawled on 
their hands and knees underneath the stream of shot 'till 
close to our troops, where they made signs of surrender- 
ing. They passed through our ranks scarcely noticed, 
and slowly went down the slope to the road in the rear.' 
* * * Equally or more terrible was that sheet of shot 
and shell which passed over those magnificent soldiers of 
Pettigrew's and Trimble's divisions, (for the artillery on 
their flank had not been silenced) and yet they did not 
'drop their muskets and crawl to the enemy to surrender,' 
but like true men took their chances and returned to 
their friends that they might fight another day for their 
homes and country. 

"All honor to the true soldiers of Pickett's and Petti- 
grew's and Trimble's division who faced that avalanche 
of shot and shell from the enemy's guns on Cemetery Hill 
and succeeded, or fell wounded or dead in the charge, in 
reaching and driving the enemy from his works and guns, 
and retreated when flanked, taking the chances of being 



94 Pickett or Pettigrew? 

shot rather than spend the remainder of the war in 
Northern prisons. All honor to Hoke's North Carolina 
and Hays' Louisiana brigades, who captured and held for 
some time the works in their front at Gettysburg. And 
the same to Steuart's (Geo. H.), of Johnson's division, 
who captured the first line of works on Culp's Hill and 
held it all night and next day 'till ordered out. These 
troops advanced in the open as far and under as heavy 
fire as any of Longstreet's. All we wish is the truth of 
history." 



"Pickett or Pettigrew?" 

* * * The lies spread and festered into a fresh growth 
among the Northern readers 'till so cool a writer as John 
Swinton was captured by the wretched stuff of Pollard, 
and no antidote was found 'till Congress issued the rec- 
ords of the War of the Rebellion, when the ghastly facts 
disclosed themselves after a silence of more than twenty 
years. Then North Carolina, with less military popula- 
tion than either Virginia or Tennessee, showed more men 
buried on the battle-field than both of these could show, 
showed more muskets surrendered at the close than any 
of her sisters, showed more dead in five regiments under 
Pettigrew at Gettysburg than Pickett's fifteen could 
claim, and all this while her own gallant sons were de- 
nied just promotion and both her troops and people were 
being officered and policed from abroad. We are the 
most long-suffering, patient people upon earth, composing 
as we did half the army that covered Virginia, while the 
Yankees gnawed our eastern vitals and east Tennessee 
tore our western flank. Tithed, taxed, burdened with 
Union prisoners, holding the one outlet at Wilmington to 
the world beyond, our shoulders never bent 'till all others 
were broken. Surely all this was well worth the compli- 
ment of "thank you." Instead we were lied upon, and this 
Captain Bond shows, and no charity should make us for- 
get it. It should be told the children and taught in the 
schools. — Morganton (N. C.) Herald. 



D 



KETTORPETTIGREW? 



J 



NORTH CAROLINA AT GETTYSBURG. 



A. HISTORICAL MONOGRAPH 



BY 



CAJ^T. ¥. R. BOND, 

SOMETIME OFFICER BRIGADE STAFF ARMY NORTHERN VIRGINIA. 



"Tell the truth and the world will come to see it at 
last. ' ' — Emerson. 



THIRD EDITION 



Single copy 
Five copies 



$ .35 
1.25 



W. L. L. HALL, Publisher, 

Scotland Neck, N. C. 

1901. 















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